Dragonfly
A dragonfly is an insect belonging to the order Odonata, suborder Anisoptera. Adult dragonflies are characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, sometimes with coloured patches and an elongated body.
Scientific name: Anisoptera
Rank: Suborder
One of Nature’s most intriguing and fascinating insects, and the subject of mankind’s most sublime and ridiculous myths and mythologies, the dragonfly darts around going about its business as usual, blissfully unaware and oblivious to the interest it has generated in us. And perhaps thankfully for us because if the dragonfly were to understand that we have called it the “Devils darning needle” and “gwas-y-neidr” or the Adder’s Servant, it could laugh long and hard at us…and considering the dragonfly has been around for over 300 million years, it could be a really, really long laugh.
The primary fascination that humans have had with dragonflies is because
- Of its ability to seek out pure water
- Of its ability to Reflect multiple colors with changing angles of light
- Of its awe inspiring flight and speed
- Of its ability to almost single handedly control insect populations
- Of its ability to adapt to change with indescribable ease
- Of the way it lives out its adult life, living each moment to the fullest
We have specific pages dedicated to the different aspects of the dragonfly in this website and lots of information and trivia associated with this fascinating creature.
To give you a heads up, while dragonflies were almost deified as the souls of the dead in Native American culture and heralded as symbols of purity and change, they were symbols of victory, power and prosperity, and the native Burmese (now Myanmar) regularly released dragonfly nymphs into the water surrounding their settlements to control the populations of Yellow Fever causing mosquitoes.
To give you a heads up, while dragonflies were almost deified as the souls of the dead in Native American culture and heralded as symbols of purity and change, they were symbols of victory, power and prosperity, and the native Burmese (now Myanmar) regularly released dragonfly nymphs into the water surrounding their settlements to control the populations of Yellow Fever causing mosquitoes.
Dragonflies are natural and seriously efficient predators and can deliver a telling blow to insect populations in areas that they are present in good numbers, so much so that normal people are saved from most mosquito-spread diseases, and bee keepers consider dragonflies as a pest.
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