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I am a dragon hunter. Dragonflies, that is! My name is Keith Wilson. I'm an odonatologist. That's a scientist who studies dragonflies. I don't hunt to kill. I hunt to discover. So far, I have helped to find many new species, or kinds, or dragonflies.

In all, about 5,500 dragonfly species buzz around the world. Hunting them is not always an easy task. Many of these flying insects live in rain forests. To find them, I sometimes need to walk through skin-shredding bushes. I have to put up with blood-sucking leeches, or worms. At times, I must even watch out for crocodiles.

Why do I risk life and limb to look for dragonflies? The answer is simple. I love them! They can speed by. They can make sharp turns and sudden stops. They can even fly backward. Dragonflies also come in many beautiful colors and patterns.

Take the tropical rockmaster, for example. It's one of my favorites. It's a large dragonfly with black wings and a blue body. Other kinds are just as colorful. Some have green, red, or yellow bodies. One even has orange wings.

Dragonflies also come in a range of sizes. The smallest known dragonfly is about the size of your thumbnail. The largest would cover your face. Still, ancient dragonflies were much larger than the dragonflies of today. Some were as big as hawks.

I recently looked for the heaviest dragonfly in the world—the giant petaltail. It lives in a rain forest in Australia.

You might think that such a large bug would be hard to miss. The petaltail, however, is very rare. Few people have ever seen it. I hiked through the rain forest for nearly a week. Finally, I spotted one. It was worth the wait. I saw several of them zooming around.

The petaltails I spotted were on a hunt of their own. They were catching cicadas. Those are large insects. Yet they were no match for the hungry petaltails.

Dragonflies are carnivores. They are fierce meat-eaters. They munch on mosquitoes. They feast on flies. They devour smaller dragonflies.

Dragonflies are built to hunt. They use their eyes, legs, and wings to feed their big appetites. Let's look at how.

The insects have two compound eyes. A compound eye has many small eyes inside of one large eye. In a dragonfly, each large eye is made of 30,000 smaller ones. The small eyes help a dragonfly see in every direction—even behind its head.

Dragonflies have six legs. Each leg has sharp spines. The insect can use its legs to stand on a limb or a leaf. Its legs, however, are not built for walking.

To get around, a dragonfly uses its four wings. It uses the wings to dart, dive, and hover. The wings beat so quickly that some dragonflies can speed through the air at 30 or more miles an hour.

A hungry dragonfly soars through the sky looking for prey. It holds its legs together to make a basket. When it spots a tasty treat, the dragonfly swoops down and catches its prey in the basket.

The dragonfly then uses its legs and jaws to hold onto its prey. Not wanting to give its meal a chance to escape, a dragonfly can eat while it flies. Now that's real fast food!

I don't worry about dragonflies. They do not bite or sting people.

Dragonflies have been on Earth for more than 250 million years. They have changed little over time. Like the dragonflies of long ago, modern dragonflies live in and out of water.

A dragonfly begins its life underwater. It hatches from an egg and becomes a larva. A larva is a young dragonfly. It can swim, but it cannot fly.

A larva lives in a lake or stream. After a year or more, it crawls out of the water. It sheds its hard skin and becomes an adult.

The adult dragonfly cannot just fly away. Its wings are moist and soft. It must wait an hour or two for its wings to dry and harden. This is a dangerous time. If a bird, lizard, or other predator spots it, it could end up as lunch.

As soon as its wings are hard enough, the dragonfly takes off. It buzzes around, looking for food. It also tries to keep from becoming another animal's snack.

The dragonfly doesn't have much flying time. Some adults live for only a few weeks. Others stay around for several months. During that time, a dragonfly is very busy. It flies. It hunts. It eats. If the dragonfly is female, it also lays eggs.

I worry about the future of these incredible insects. People are cutting down the forests where dragonflies live. Dozens of species have died out. Others are in danger.

Some people are helping. In China, people wanted to build homes where two rare dragonfly species live. They decided not to.

It was a good decision. It helped to keep these tiny dragons in the air and on the hunt.

Article by Keith Wilson. Top-of-page photo by Omar Bocanegra. "The Dragon Hunter" appears on pages 4-9 of our September 2005 issue.

// ONLINE EXTRA //

// LINKS //

A Beginner's Guide to Dragonflies
Learn more about the life cycle of a dragonfly and how to tell dragonflies apart from damselflies. View a diagram outlining the parts of a dragonfly.

Dragonflies and Damselflies of North America and Mexico
Do you know which dragonfly species live in your area? Find out with an interactive map detailing dragonfly distribution.

The British Dragonfly Society
Read field updates, find books, and get instructions on how to build a pond geared toward dragonflies.

The Hine's Dragonfly
Get the buzz on the Hine's emerald dragonfly, the only dragonfly on the federal list of endangered species.