05/05/2025
🦋🐝🐞🦟🦗🕷️🪲🐌🐛🪱
Dragonflies and nymphs
Dragonflies are an often overlooked part of an East African safari but play a vital role in the ecosystem. Although relatively common they are increasingly threatened in many areas of Tanzania.
So we were very excited to spot several flying around and even breeding in our new office pond!
Dragonflies are part of the insect order Odonata along with damselflies, many of which are important indicator species for water quality and pollution levels.
They start out life as eggs laid in water before hatching into their larval stage as nymphs. Nymphs are fast, fully aquatic creatures which can often be seen darting around the water. They are ferocious predators (we’ve caught them biting the tails off the new tadpoles in our pond) using their speed to ambush prey. They can live for several months, even years as nymphs depending on the species and moult several times underwater before coming to the surface for their final moult. When ready they leave the water and grab onto nearby foliage where they begin to wriggle out of their cast skin (exuvia) - the casts are pretty sticky and you can see them attached to the plant stems and even an unsuspecting spider in the photos - a bit at a time, drying as they go, before finally fully emerging and taking their first maiden flight as an immature adult dragonfly.
