Linda Albert, age l2, of Albany, N.Y., for her question:
What is the story of the dragonfly?
The dragonfly's life is the story of an ugly creature who grew into an eye catching beauty. We see her only in the final stage when she is a beauteous adult flying insect. Most of her past life was spent in a stream as a clumsy, wingless water bug of dreary brown.
Amphibious animals spend part of their lives in the water and part on land. At one stage they transfer from water breathers to air breathers and most of them make other drastic changes at this time. The dragonfly is an amphibious insect who spends one to five years as a very unattractive looking water bug. Her glamorous life in the air lasts only a few short months.
Life begins when the adult dragonfly drops her eggs onto the surface of a pond or stream. There may be l00,000 little eggs 3inked together in a string, and the mother. insect may dip down to wash them from her body. The eggs float or cling to water Weeds arid many of them are devoured by hungry pond dwellers. After one or two weeks, those that escape hatch into nymphs.
The juvenile nymphs have insect type bodies like their parents with three pairs of jointed legs but there the resemblance ends. You would never guess that these muddy brown ugly ducklings are the children of the glamorous dragonfly. They have bulky heads and thick, bulky bodies with no shimmering wings. As they grow, they shed their old, tight skins for bigger ones and some of them molt l2 times or more. more
Dragonfly nymphs have tubes to take in water and more tubes to extract its oxygen. Other tubes squirt out the used water and the squirts send the young creatures jerking along like jet propelled submarines. They are fierce, skillful hunters who feed on eggs and larva of fish and other insects. The large ones devour big water bugs and even small fishes. During the cold months they sleep in the muddy bed of their pond or stream.
The nymph stage lasts from one to five years. Then comes the great day when each water dwelling dragonfly gets ready for the last molt. It climbs up a reedy stem into the air and the drab, brown skin cracks open. Out crawls a slim, gorgeous insect of purple or vivid blue, bronze or shimmering green. Two pairs of crumpled wings unfold in the sunshine and the handsome stranger is soon ready to zip aced zoom through the air at maybe 60 miles an hour.
Some people think that dragonflies are our enemies. They call them mule killers or devil's darning needles and claim that the slender beauties like to sew up people's ears. This, of course , is nonsense, for they devour hordes of eggs, larvae and adult flies and mosquitos. The dainty dragonflies as well as their ugly duckling water nymphs are our friends and allies against many pesky insects.