Dragonhunter
The dragonhunter is a big black and yellow dragonfly with green eyes. It is so strong that it hunts other dragonflies. It is the largest clubtail dragonfly in North America.
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Fun facts
It sometimes swoops down on other dragonflies from above, like a surprise attack.
Monarch butterflies are poisonous, but the dragonhunter eats them in a clever order to avoid most of the poison.
Its baby, the nymph, has a very flat, wide body and hides in leaves at the edge of streams.
A flying male often curls its tail under its body into the shape of a sideways letter J.
It is the only member of its genus. Its closest cousins live far away in Asia.
Most asked questions about Dragonhunter
?What does a dragonhunter eat?
Big flying insects, including other dragonflies and monarch butterflies.
?How big is a dragonhunter?
About 84 millimetres long, bigger than any other clubtail in North America.
?Is the dragonhunter dangerous?
No, it is harmless to people.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Hagenius brevistylus
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Gomphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Gomphidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Dragonhunter (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Raphael Carter. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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