Marsh dancer
Onychargia atrocyana
The marsh dancer is a damselfly, a slim cousin of the dragonfly. A grown-up male is black like velvet with brown eyes that wear a black cap. Young ones have bright lemon-yellow stripes.
Lives in
South and South-East Asia, from India and China to Indonesia and the Philippines, by forest ponds and marshes
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It has no sting and does not hurt people.
What does it eat?
It catches small flying insects. Its babies live in ponds and hunt tiny water animals.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Marsh dancer about 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
As it grows up, a fine dusty bloom covers its yellow stripes until it looks almost all black.
2
Its long black tail has thin bluish rings near the top.
3
It lays its eggs in ponds and marshes inside forests.
4
The female looks like a young male, with yellow marks.
you asked
Most asked questions about Marsh dancer
?Is the marsh dancer a dragonfly?
It is a damselfly, a thinner cousin of dragonflies. Both belong to the same big group.
?Where does the marsh dancer live?
In many countries of South and South-East Asia, near ponds and marshes in forests.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Onychargia atrocyana
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Platycnemididae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Platycnemididae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Black marsh dart
Where the facts come from
- Onychargia atrocyana (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 Davidvraju. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
Emperor dragonfly
Common whitetail
Green darner
Ebony jewelwing
Globe skimmer
Blue dasher
Grannom
Diving bell spider
Darwin's bark spider
Giant isopod
Eastern dobsonfly
Furrow spider