![]() A skimmer dragonfly nymph eyes a mosquito larva. “Then it relaxes, and the muscles pull it back to the head,” said Paulson. ![]() When the time is right, they shoot out their killer lip and scoop up their prey or trap it between two serrated halves.Ī nymph is full of a blood-like fluid called hemolymph, which it controls by hydraulic pressure to propel the labium. Skimmer nymphs bury in the sand and wait for their prey. Skimmer dragonfly nymphs engulf their prey with a spork-shaped labium. The larva of a skimmer dragonfly shoots out its labium, but fails to catch a mosquito larva that was swimming by. In nymphs that will grow up to be skimmer dragonflies, the labium is shaped something like a spork. Sometime many millions of years ago, the different mouthparts that insects use to catch and push food into their mouths fused to form the labium, said Paulson.Īlso known among biologists as a “killer lip,” the labium comes in two shapes. “It’s obviously an adaptation to be a predator underwater, where it’s not easy to trap things,” said Dennis Paulson, a dragonfly biologist retired from the University of Puget Sound.ĭragonflies have been around for 320 million years, since before the dinosaurs. A dragonfly nymph's special mouthpart is referred to as a "killer lip." Here, a nymph nabs a fly that was floating at the surface. With their labium, nymphs can catch mosquito larvae, worms and even small fish and tadpoles. “It’s like a built-in spear gun,” said Kathy Biggs, the author of guides to the dragonflies of California and the Greater Southwest. Only dragonfly and damselfly nymphs have this special mouthpart. Instead, dragonfly nymphs have to fend for themselves to keep up their carnivorous diet.Ī nymph’s eyesight is almost as precise as an adult dragonfly’s and when they spot something they want to eat, they extrude this mouthpart, called a labium, to engulf, grab, or impale their next meal and draw it back to their mouth. Unlike butterflies, which also have distinct life stages, dragonflies’ transformation into adults doesn’t require a period of dormancy during which a pupa lives off the protein it stored as a caterpillar. “And the adult stage is all about dispersal and reproduction.” “The larval stage is all about growth,” said Joan Ball-Damerow, a fellow at the Field Museum in Chicago who has surveyed dragonflies in California. As it turns out, dragonflies spend most of their lives as aquatic insects crawling around the bottom of ponds or streams. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)ĭragonfly and damselfly babies, also known as larvae or nymphs, spend months or years underwater growing to a couple of inches long and developing wings on their backs. A dragonfly nymph catches a mosquito larva with a special mouthpart it shoots out, Alien-style, at lightning speed. It’s like a long, hinged arm that they keep folded under their head and it’s eerily similar to the snapping tongue-like protuberance the monster shoots out in the "Alien" sci-fi movies. Instead, they have a mouthpart that they shoot out. If adult dragonflies are known to be precise hunters, capable of turning on a dime and using their almost-360-degree vision to nab mosquitoes and flies in midair, their dragon-looking babies are even more fearsome.Īnd they do it without the benefit of wings. What most amateur odonatologists have probably never seen is what happens after those eggs hatch underwater. While developing their versatile four wings, dragonflies spend months, even years, underwater as larvae. (Josh Cassidy/KQED) A flame skimmer dragonfly sits on a branch in Sebastopol. A blue dasher pushes a cardinal meadowhawk dragonfly off a flower in Sebastopol, California. Or a blue female damselfly, wings held tightly alongside her torso, dipping the tip of her abdomen beneath a water clover to lay her eggs. In California, they might spot a pair of bright-red flame skimmers flying around, attached to each other in a mating dance. Others watch dragonflies.įor amateur odonatologists, as dragonfly enthusiasts are called, the summer and fall bring a bonanza.
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