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Sticker of Sooty dancer
Bug card No. 3986 of 4,939

Sooty dancer

Argia lugens

The sooty dancer is a damselfly from North and Central America. Damselflies are the slim, delicate cousins of dragonflies. Its name tells you it is dark, like soot from a chimney.

Lives in
North America and Central America
Top speed
about 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Damselflies do not sting or bite people.
What does it eat?
It catches small flying insects. Its babies grow up in water and hunt there.
For real!Photo of Sooty dancer
Picture by JerryFriedman. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

There are plenty of sooty dancers, and scientists say their numbers are staying the same.

2

Dancers are a group of damselflies with narrow wings.

3

Like other damselflies, it starts life as a baby living under water.

you asked

Most asked questions about Sooty dancer

?Is the sooty dancer dangerous?

No. Damselflies do not sting or bite, and they eat small flying insects.

?Where does the sooty dancer live?

In North America and Central America, near water.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Argia lugens
Group
Dragonflies and damselflies
Family
Coenagrionidae
Classification
Insecta > Odonata > Coenagrionidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Argia lugens (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 JerryFriedman. 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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