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Sticker of Blue corporal
Bug card No. 0525 of 4,939

Blue corporal

Ladona deplanata
Name means: “"deplanata" means flattened, probably because of its wide, flat body. "Corporal" comes from the two stripes on its chest, like the two stripes a corporal wears in the army”
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsDragonflies and damselfliesPonds, rivers and shores6 legs

The blue corporal is a small, chunky dragonfly. The male has a powdery blue tail and two pale blue stripes on his dark chest. Unlike most dragonflies, it likes to sit right on the ground.

Lives in
Eastern United States, from Oklahoma to New Hampshire and south to Texas and Florida, at sandy ponds and lakes
Length
2.9 to 4 cm (1.1 to 1.6 in)
Top speed
about 33 km/h (21 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Dragonflies have no sting. A big one may nip if you hold it, so just watch it fly.
What does it eat?
It catches small flies, beetles and leafhoppers. Its babies live in the pond and eat midge and mayfly larvae.
For real!Photo of Blue corporal
Picture by John Flannery from Richmond County, North Carolina, USA. CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Blue corporal about 4 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 230 times its own body length every second

How big is Blue corporal compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It hunts by waiting on the ground and making quick, short flights to grab passing insects.

2

The female lays her eggs a few at a time, spread out around the pond, while the male hovers above to guard her.

3

It spends the winter as a nymph under water. In early spring they all come out within about one month.

4

In Florida it flies in winter, from November to May.

5

Females are brown with a black stripe down the tail, not blue like the males.

you asked

Most asked questions about Blue corporal

?Why is it called a corporal?

Because of the two stripes on its chest, like the two stripes on a corporal's uniform.

?How big is the blue corporal?

It is about 29 to 40 millimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Ladona deplanata
Named by
Rambur, 1842
Group
Dragonflies and damselflies
Family
Libellulidae
Classification
Insecta > Odonata > Libellulidae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Little corporal

Where the facts come from

  1. Blue corporal (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 John Flannery from Richmond County, North Carolina, USA. CC BY-SA 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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