If you’ve been paying attention to the “out of doors” lately you have probably seen a bunch of dragonflies. This is the “season” for them. As adults, dragonflies fly around and feed on small insects, particularly mosquitoes. The male will establish a territory over a pond, and he will vigorously defend that territory by chasing off any other males. This leads to some amazing flying duels.

Dragonflies come in a variety of sizes from quite small to large enough to catch and eat small fish. They have also been around for a long, long, time. One reference states that fossils of dragonfly-like insects date back 350 million years ago to the Carboniferous Period, a time covering 60 million years in which much of the coal we are using today was deposited. There were no birds or bats back then and the only things flying around were insects, the largest of which, according to the University of Nebraska, were dragonflies. These ancient dragonflies had a wingspan of almost three feet.

As time passed flying ability became much more important than size. Smaller and quicker were the keys to survival. Today a dragonfly can do stunts that would make a drone jealous. They can stop on a dime, hover, and then burst into speeds of up to 30 mph! They can make sharp turns and drop like a stone only to then rocket back into the sky. It is not surprising that something this common with these capabilities is held in high regard in many cultures.

The Native Americans of the Great Plains considered it lucky if one landed on your lodge. To them, the dragonfly represented purity, swiftness, transformation, invincibility and their presence was indicative of a good corn crop. In many nations killing a dragonfly was taboo.

Across the Atlantic Ocean it was quite the opposite. In her blog, Chris Goforth, AKA, the “Dragonfly Lady”, lists a number of beliefs about dragonflies from Europe that are not very complimentary. First, the largest dragonflies are called “darners” because children were told that if they were naughty the dragonflies would sew their ears shut while they were sleeping. If you used profanity, they would sew your mouth shut!

Another belief is that dragonflies sting. They don’t, but from first-hand experience I can tell you that they can and do bite. Some believe dragonflies are in league with the devil and fly around determining the purity of your soul. They are also called snake doctors because supposedly they follow wounded snakes and suture up the snake’s wounds. There is a belief that if a pregnant woman looks a dragonfly in the eye her child will be born with eye problems. Not as serious as defective eyes but many fishermen believe that if there are dragonflies around the fish will not bite.

Dragonflies lay eggs in the water. The eggs hatch and the larvae live on the bottom of the pond for one to five years getting bigger and bigger eating basically everything smaller than themselves. Then they crawl out of the water, molt, and enter the adult stage with their acrobatic flight capabilities.

As an adult a dragonfly will eat almost 5,000 mosquitoes while mating, laying eggs, and living out the remaining seven weeks of their lives. There are over 7,000 different kinds of dragonflies in the world, 450 different kinds in the U.S. and 111 different kinds of dragonflies in Nebraska. The large ones flying around now are green darners and they are in the process of migrating south. Yep, butterflies, birds and now dragonflies…one more species of migrating animals crossing Nebraska.