INSECT AEROPLANES

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12471, 12 June 1926, Page 16

INSECT AEROPLANES

Like the mosquitoes which many of them eat, dragonflies begin life in the water, leaving it for the air when they grow up. In some cases the larvae live on the faces of waterfalls, clinging to moss and various odds and ends. When they do take to the air dragonflies are probably the swiftest of all insects in flight, and can give a 6tart and a beating to many birds. They are bnilt for speed, and might well have formed a model for aeroplanes; indeed, many of them look very like toy ’planes. Dragonflies are sometimes called “horse-stingerß,” but the name is a libel, for none of them sting horses or anything else. They are, indeed, useful allies of man, for they devour quantities of mosquitoes and of other small insect pests. The larvae of the dragonflies have very healthy appetites, and devour the larvae of other insects during their under-water gillbreathing period of existence. They are very ancient upon the earth, and have no very close relations amongst the other insects. Dragonflies vary greatly in size. The largest Australian species, Petaura ingentissima (to those who are lot scientists all dragonflies are just Iragonflies, and few, if any, of the pecies have separate English names) s one of the largest dragonflies in the world. It may measure 6) inches across the wings. These huge dragonflies are found on swamps on the tablelands in the east of Australia.