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Sticker of Grenadier
Bug card No. 2113 of 4,939

Grenadier

Agrionoptera insignis
Name means: “remarkable, because its back wings are narrow at the base”

The grenadier is a colourful dragonfly from Asia and Australia. The male has a shiny green chest with yellow spots and a red tail with a black tip. It likes swampy places.

Lives in
Eastern Asia and Oceania, from Japan down to Australia, in swampy places
Length
3.7 to 4.1 cm (1.5 to 1.6 in)
Top speed
about 33 km/h (21 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Dragonflies and damselflies have no sting, so just watch it fly.
What does it eat?
It catches flying insects in the air. Its young live under water and hunt small water animals.
For real!Photo of Grenadier
Picture by Bill Higham. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Grenadier about 4.1 cm long (1.6 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 7 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 11 secondsmoves 220 times its own body length every second

How big is Grenadier compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The male is 37 to 41 millimetres long, and each back wing is about 3 centimetres long.

2

Its eyes are brown and yellow.

3

The female has the same pattern as the male, but her tail is a duller colour.

4

It is happy to live in swamps that people have changed or disturbed.

5

It is common in most of the places where it lives, from Japan to Australia.

you asked

Most asked questions about Grenadier

?Where does the grenadier dragonfly live?

In eastern Asia and Oceania, from Japan to Australia.

?How big is the grenadier?

The male is about 37 to 41 mm long.

?What does the name insignis mean?

It is Latin for remarkable, because of the narrow base of its back wings.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Agrionoptera insignis
Group
Dragonflies and damselflies
Family
Libellulidae
Classification
Insecta > Odonata > Libellulidae
Lives on
Asia, Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Agrionoptera insignis (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 Bill Higham. 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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