Red-tailed pennant
Brachymesia furcata
The red-tailed pennant is a dragonfly with a bright red tail. It lives around warm marshes, ponds and lakes. Its babies grow up underwater before they get their four wings.
Lives in
The Caribbean and warm parts of North, Central and South America, near marshes, ponds and lakes
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Dragonflies do not sting.
What does it eat?
The adults catch small flying insects like flies and mosquitoes. The nymphs hunt underwater.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
Red-tailed pennant about 40 km/h (25 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its eggs are wrapped in a jelly-like goo.
2
A female can lay hundreds of eggs in batches during her life.
3
The baby, called a nymph, has no wings and walks underwater on six long legs.
4
It can live in water that is a little bit salty, not only in fresh water.
you asked
Most asked questions about Red-tailed pennant
?What does the red-tailed pennant eat?
Small flying insects like flies and mosquitoes, which is good news for people.
?Where do red-tailed pennant babies live?
Underwater in ponds and marshes, hiding among plants and mud until they grow up.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Brachymesia furcata
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Libellulidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Libellulidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
Where the facts come from
- Brachymesia furcata (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 MacUSER230. CC BY 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.
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