Dragonflies have been around 300 million years. One prehistoric fossil had a wingspan of 2 1/2 feet! Today, the largest dragonfly is found in Costa Rica. It has a wingspan of 7 1/2 inches. Below you’ll find more interesting facts about dragonflies.

• Dragonfly eyes contain up to 30,000 individual lenses. Human eyes only have one.
• They have two sets of wings. They don’t have to beat their wings in unison like other insects do. Their front wings can be going up while their backs ones are going down.
• They only flap their wings at about 30 beats per second (bps) compared to a bee’s 300 bps.
• Excellent and strong fliers, they can loop-the-loop, hover, and fly backwards.
• An Australian variety has been clocked at 36 miles per hour.
• Dragonfly nymphs (the first stage after hatching) live in the water for about a year.
• While underwater they eat mosquito nymphs, tiny fish, and pollywogs. When they have matured to airborne insects, they catch mosquitoes and gnats in mid-air before devouring them.
• After leaving the water and becoming flying insects, they only live for about a month.
• Their natural predators are birds.
• Among the many names for dragonflies around the world are Old Glassy from China, Water Dipper from England and Big Needle of Wings from the ancient Celts.

are some of the largest insects. They are beneficial insects--predators of smaller insects such as mosquitoes and crop pests. Dragonflies knew about fast food long before humans: they hold their prey in their legs and munch while flying--sort of like picking up an order of "mosquito in a basket" to go!