Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Odonata .....the mosquito eater?




This morning, around 8.50 a.m (13 May 2008), when I was in the library, a friend of mine told me that there was a big dragonfly fluttering and then attached itself to the wall of the school's office. Without wasting time, I took my camera and run towards the insect. Yapp, it's really a big dragonfly, an insect under the Order Odonata.

My pupils then helped me to catch the creature and they managed to do so after several minutes. I measured the length of the abdomen, wings, legs and its compound eyes. The weight of the dragonfly also being taken. The descriptions of this insect are as follows:


number of wings : 2 pairs
length of abdomen : 6.5 mm
length of right fore wing : 8.5 cm (same to left fore wing)
length of right hind wing : 8.0 cm (same to left hind wing)
length of leg : 2.0 cm
weight : 5 g
special feature : wings with brown spot

I can't identify the scientific name or local name of the dragonfly. Does it fall under the family of Libellulidae? Is this a skimmer dragonfly?

Note:
Dragonflies are insects that fall under the order Odonata. These conspicuous and brightly coloured insects have long, slender abdomen and known as aerial
predators, hunting by sight.

* For those who wants to know more about dragonfly, please surf
http://ecoevo.uvigo.es/WDA/Beginners_Guide.htm

13 May 2008

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