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Sticker of Tropical rockmaster
Bug card No. 4444 of 4,939

Tropical rockmaster

Diphlebia euphoeoides
Name means: “double vein”

The tropical rockmaster is a big damselfly from Queensland and New Guinea. The male is bright blue and black with smoky dark wings. Unlike most damselflies, it rests with its wings spread out, so people often mistake it for a dragonfly.

Lives in
Queensland in Australia and Papua New Guinea, near streams, waterfalls and lakes
Top speed
about 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Damselflies have no sting.
What does it eat?
It hunts small insects. Its babies live under water and are hunters too.
For real!Photo of Tropical rockmaster
Picture by Graham Winterflood. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The female looks quite different. She is mostly brown and yellow-green, with smoky wings.

2

Its wings are the widest of all the rockmasters, and the back wings are wider than the front ones.

3

The mother lays her eggs under water on moss and reeds, around November.

4

The babies are wide and flat, with long gills for breathing under water. They stay there for about a year.

5

It was first described in 1907 by a young scientist called Robin Tillyard.

you asked

Most asked questions about Tropical rockmaster

?Is the tropical rockmaster a dragonfly?

No, it is a damselfly. It just rests with its wings open like a dragonfly does.

?Where does the tropical rockmaster live?

In Queensland in Australia and in Papua New Guinea, near streams and waterfalls.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Diphlebia euphoeoides
Named by
Tillyard, 1907
Group
Dragonflies and damselflies
Classification
Insecta > Odonata
Lives on
Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Diphlebia euphoeoides (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 Graham Winterflood. 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.

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More from the same group: Dragonflies and damselflies

Also at home here: Ponds, rivers and shores

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