Gray sanddragon
The gray sanddragon is a fairly big dragonfly that lives by sandy streams in dry, desert places. Its body is greyish brown, and its black tail has yellow marks on top of every part. The tip of its tail is a little swollen, like a tiny club.
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Fun facts
Its young, called nymphs, hide buried in the sand. They keep the tip of their tail sticking up and pump water in and out of it to breathe.
When a stream starts to dry up, the nymphs swim upstream to find water.
Unlike most dragonflies, its nymphs climb out of the water and turn into adults in the daytime.
It does not like the cold. On cool or cloudy days you will hardly ever see it flying.
The mother lays her eggs alone. She hovers over a shallow stream and dips the tip of her tail into the water.
Most asked questions about Gray sanddragon
?What does the gray sanddragon eat?
Soft flying insects like mosquitoes, flies and moths. Its young eat water insects and sometimes tiny fish.
?How big is a gray sanddragon?
It is about 6 centimetres long.
?Is the gray sanddragon dangerous?
No. It has no sting and is harmless to people.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Progomphus borealis
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Gomphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Gomphidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Gray sanddragon (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 Pompilid. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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