Dragonflies

[buckry]

Found a huge dragonfly in my pond today, so big I think I can safely drop the word "fly" and not be exaggerating. It was landing on my hyacinths so it could dip its tail in the water. What was it doing? Laying eggs? Drinking? Peeing? Testing the water to see if it wanted to go for a swim? Just curious.

 

[sknichols]

Thats funny you posted this, I saw the same thing yesterday. I even took a video of it on my phone because I could not figure out what it was doing. My dragonfly was dipping the tail in and splashing the water into my grass. Hope someone can tell us what they are doing. It was interesting.

 

[fishin4cars]

Laying eggs. Some species including Damsel flies may just dip and touch the water and lay a single egg. some larger species will actually rest and dip the tail in the water to lay eggs. These type usually lay a small cluster of eggs at one sitting. Note, dragon fly and damsel fly larvae can be extremely dangerous to small fry. once the fry get about 2" there shouldn't be much danger left. The larvae of the dragon and damsel fly are a great source of protien for larger koi and larger goldfish.

 

[buckry]

Awesome, was hoping they'd be a tasty snack for my koi. How are they dangerous to fry? Don't really care, I don't want babies, but am curious how a worm can kill a baby fish, or vice versa for that matter.

 

[Mmathis]

I saw the same thing the other day.

 

[fishin4cars]

Awesome, was hoping they'd be a tasty snack for my koi. How are they dangerous to fry? Don't really care, I don't want babies, but am curious how a worm can kill a baby fish, or vice versa for that matter.

The larvae are actually insects that have a large appetite. They get pretty large and are very good at catching fish, tadpoles, and other insects. they hold onto a plant, rock, or similar surface and wait for the food to swim near them then grab. you'll eventually see one, probably about the size of your finger/thumb nail. they are usually a light sandy color and look kind of like a beetle. they emerge and shed the coat and the dragonfly will emerge similar to a butterfly. this happens usually very early in the morning and is a neat thing to watch. I have always been amazed that such a large flying insect could emerge from such a small water bug.

 

[ellisr63]

Does anyone have a pic of what they look like as a beetle?

 

[addy1]

I tried to load a net picture but it won't let me , just do a search on dragonfly larvae, you will see what they look like

http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/photos/krasensky/dragonfly-larva-1111.jpg

 

[buckry]

http://www.cfwep.org/education/smsp/module08/m0805-content-iddrago.html

Dear lord that's terrifying. I'm more worried about my children being eaten than fry.

 

[adavisus]

Here's an 'imago', the shell casing of a dragonfly larvae that emerged from the water, split its skin and morphed off as a dragonfly.

For hunting habits, the make believe 'alien' would be good comparison as that has many of the features of the very real and sinister ambush predator, the dragonfly larvae

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.co...s/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[j.w]

See now that's what I had on my Iris stem and I kept looking at it everyday and it never would move. Now I know why..............it was just the empty carcass...........geez don't you wish you could crawl outta your skin that way and leave the remnants laying around on the streets? Would make a great horror movie

 

[Shoestring Ponder]

Our first season DH and I could not figure out what was emerging from our 12" of water in our leaking pool. We had already dropped in a few goldfish to take care of the mosquito larvae but this was something truly alien. Then one midnight, DH took his camera out to see if he could figure out what it was. I will have to have him send me some pictures so I can post them here. They are on his laptop. It was quite an interesting summer, even though the reason we had it was because DH had been laid-off. We learned a lot in the subsequent 22 mos.

:goldfish:

 

[j.w]

Would like to see it SP!

 

[Shoestring Ponder]

DH is working in IL and will be home tomorrow. I have emailed him to bring home the pics. They are so very interesting! We learned so much that season '09. Our favorite saying was "To the GOOGLE" !!! Had no idea about spawning. Thought they were beating up on a couple of fish...well "To the Google"! and found out! I only wish I had someone young that would be interested in what we all learned. Each of our sons married someone w a son but neither of the boys took an interest and we did not want to be like my parents, forcing information on someone who was not interested. We just learned, snapped pics and learned some more. Maybe that is why I love my Shoestring Pond so much. :luxlove: So very interesting. I will certainly post pics either tonight if he sends me some or tomorrow once he returns. He took the old laptop and I got the new one once he got his first contract job in KS. When he got a different one after another 4 mos. of unemployment when the first 6 mo. job ended, he moved to IL and that laptop started getting snarky. So he got a new one. Unfortunately, we are too old to hire and too young to retire, so contract jobs are the way we keep the house etc.

:goldfish:

 

[j.w]

"To the Google".............that's too funny! It is fun to learn so much about something that you really enjoy doing and I love my ponding too :luxlove: Our kids didn't take any interest in ponding either but then I never had one when they were growing up. Dug my first one about 12 yrs ago and they were all grown and moved out of the house by then.