{"id":3174,"date":"2025-06-01T12:11:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T18:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bouldercountyopenspace.org\/i\/?p=3174"},"modified":"2025-06-04T10:26:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T16:26:20","slug":"superpowers-of-dragonflies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bouldercountyopenspace.org\/i\/nature-detectives\/superpowers-of-dragonflies\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature Detectives: The Superpowers of Dragonflies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer is here, and the amazing dragonflies are emerging to show off their beauty and superpowers. You can watch them dart across ponds, lakes, wetlands, and open meadows as they hunt \u2014 moving forward, backward, up, down, and hovering in a beautiful dance right before your eyes.<\/p>\n

Ancient Dragonflies: Older Than the Dinosaurs<\/h2>\n

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The ancestor to the dragonfly, called a griffonfly, lived 350 million years ago. Most dinosaurs roamed the earth between 250 and 65 million years ago \u2014 that\u2019s 100 million years after the first dragonflies appeared. Only a few other animals, such as crocodiles, sharks, and horseshoe crabs, still look like their ancient ancestors.<\/p>\n

The griffonfly looked very much like today\u2019s dragonfly only much, much bigger! A griffonfly could have a wingspan, from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other wing, of more than 2 feet long (24 inches). That would be about the same size as a magpie\u2019s wingspan. The common green darner, the biggest dragonfly in Colorado today, has a wingspan of about 3 inches.<\/p>\n

Ancient dragonfly superpower: Dragonflies have changed very little over 350 million years.<\/p>\n

Beginning Life in the Pond<\/h2>\n

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We may see many colors of adult dragonflies flying around, but they begin life in the water. Dragonflies lay their eggs on plants in the water, also known as aquatic plants. When the eggs hatch, they become larvae \u2014 also called nymphs \u2014 that breathe underwater with gills.<\/p>\n

The nymphs begin hunting by lying in wait to ambush their prey. They grow as they eat other water insects, tadpoles and even small fish. As they grow, they get too big for their skin, like how you outgrow your clothes. The skin of insects is called an exoskeleton; it\u2019s a hard outter layer that protects their body. As dragonfly nymphs outgrow their exoskeletons, they shed the old hard shells. Then they let a new soft skin underneath harden. Each skin shedding is called a molt, and dragonfly larvae may molt five to 15 times while living in the water from a few months to over five years. The nymphs are great predators and have these superpowers to help them eat:<\/p>\n