You may have seen the videos of the huge dragonfly swarm on the beach in Rhode Island in the news recently. That swarm was most likely the Common Green Darner species of dragonfly. This species forms huge groups for migration. They typical move down the east coast in late summer. Although it looks rather startling if you happen to be on the beach at the time, Common Green Darners are harmless. Dragonflies do not sting, and they do everything they can to avoid bumping into people. If you hold one improperly, then it can bite, but rarely does. If you are bitten by a dragonfly, it's just a pinch. No fangs, no venom, just tiny mouthparts designed to crunch the insects that form their diet. Dragon fly nymphs, however, live in the water and are voracious eaters of almost anything organic. They will bite if they can, and their bite can be painful, due to the strong mandibles.
This past week, I had a dragonfly swarm in my backyard. It was smaller than the dragonfly swarm in Rhode Island, but still pretty impressive to see up close. Of course, I filmed it and even captured one of the dragonflies to get a good species identification. While some dragonflies are easy to identify with a casual observation, others require detailed scrutiny pr even magnification to properly identify. In this week's episode of "What Lives in My Yard?" you can learn about the important parts of the dragonfly anatomy for species identification and how to tell the male from the female easily.
Episode 3, "Dragonfly Swarms, Identification, and Anatomy" is available now. You can watch it on the embedded link below:
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