A friend once said to me that he thought dragonflies are scary creatures. Perhaps because they zap around at speed and there is the fear that these insects may accidentally fly into you and stab you, especially in the eye?
Anyway, I belief I have since convinced him that these odonates are beautiful creatures and they are of no harm to humans.
Having said that, I should add that dragonflies and damselflies are actually ferocious predators in their own right. They are specialised hunters with voracious appetites, whether as a nymph in the water or as an odonate in the air. The nymph would feed on almost any aquatic prey small enough for it to handle such as tadpoles and small fish while adult odonates mainly catch insects in flight, be it faster-flying insects such as flies, a larger prey such as wasps or weaker-flying insects such as small moths in the case of damselflies.
In general, dragonflies typically feed on mosquitoes and other small insects so they are valuable predators in helping to control insect populations. And they do eat up a lot of insects in a day! By the hundreds!
Anyway, I had the chance to spot this dragonfly catching its meal. It was very quick. I saw it zap from its perch to catch the insect and then zap back to its perch again. By the time I got to it from a few metres away and took a picture, he had almost gobbled up his entire meal.
And within seconds, this is what is left...
The same goes for this damselfly...
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