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Sticker of Seaside dragonlet
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Seaside dragonlet

Erythrodiplax berenice

The seaside dragonlet is a small, slim dragonfly that lives by the sea. Grown-up males are black, with eyes that are dark red on top and light green below. It has a superpower: its babies can grow up in salty seawater.

Lives in
Coasts of eastern North America, from Maine to Florida and the West Indies, in salt marshes and mangroves
Length
3.1 to 3.5 cm (1.2 to 1.4 in)
Top speed
about 31 km/h (19 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Dragonflies have no sting. A big one may nip if you hold it, so just watch it fly.
What does it eat?
It catches smaller insects, including lacewings and damselflies. Its babies hunt in salty marsh water.
For real!Photo of Seaside dragonlet
Picture by Andrew Cannizzaro. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Seaside dragonlet about 3.5 cm long (1.4 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 6 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 12 secondsmoves 250 times its own body length every second

How big is Seaside dragonlet compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is the only dragonfly in the Americas that can breed in seawater.

2

In a lab test, its babies survived water more than two and a half times saltier than the sea.

3

Females come in many colours, often bright orange with black stripes.

4

Pairs fly together and even lay their eggs together, usually into floating mats of seaweed.

5

In one study in a Maine salt marsh, it spent 99 out of every 100 minutes sitting on plants.

you asked

Most asked questions about Seaside dragonlet

?Can dragonflies live in salt water?

Most cannot, but the seaside dragonlet can. Its babies grow up in salty marshes and mangroves.

?How big is the seaside dragonlet?

It is about 31 to 35 millimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Erythrodiplax berenice
Group
Dragonflies and damselflies
Family
Libellulidae
Classification
Insecta > Odonata > Libellulidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Erythrodiplax berenice (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Andrew Cannizzaro. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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More from the same group: Dragonflies and damselflies

Also at home here: Ponds, rivers and shores

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