Dragonflies and Damselflies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Odonata

The Odonata Order contains two main Suborders - Anisoptera (dragonflies) and Zygoptera (damselflies). Lepidoptera are butterflies and moths, the Hymenoptera Order contains bees, wasps and ants, and Orthoptera members are grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets.

Answer: damselflies are all female

At rest, the wings of the damselfly are held close to, or above the body. The dragonfly holds its wings spread when resting, often at right angles to the body.

Answer: 10 mph

The maximum speed of large species is around 25-30 mph, but the average cruising speed is about 10 mph. Small species, and especially damselflies, are generally slower, although many medium-sized species can probably keep up with the largest ones !

Answer: Devil's Darning Needle

This stems from an old myth that if you went to sleep by a stream on a summer's day, damselflies would use their long, thin bodies to sew your eyelids shut !

Answer: Yes

They are very tiny and difficult to see. Dragonflies rely much more on their eyesight than on their sense of touch or smell, so they don't need the large antennae found on some beetles and moths.

Answer: larva

Most of their time is spent in the larval form, beneath the water surface. They are as fierce in the water as the adults will be in the air, feeding on various forms of aquatic life, including insects, tadpoles, and even small fish. Larvae are also referred to as nymphs.

Answer: False

This name may come from the way a captured dragonfly curls its abdomen as if in an attempt to sting. Another possible explanation of this name is that the big dragonflies were often seen flying around horses in fields. Here they were actually feeding on the flies attracted to horses. Occasionally a fly would irritate or bite a horse enough to make it twitch or skip about. People seeing it made the inference that it was the dragonfly, being big and obvious, stinging, rather than an unseen fly biting !

Answer: 300 million

Dragonflies predate dinosaurs by over 100 million years and birds by some 150 million years. It would be tragic if, after surviving such an unimaginable number of years, it should be our generation that witnesses a serious decline of these fascinating and beautiful insects !

Answer: Central America

This is a thin, long-abdomened damselfly. The largest member of the extinct Protodonata was the Permian Meganeuropsis permiana with a reconstructed wingsapn (based on fragments, scaled to complete fossils of similar animals) of 70-75 cm !

Answer: True

Yes ! And...larger ones in our school playing areas and even larger ones in various types of open spaces. It will not be long before dragonflies and damselflies start to colonise them, since many species readily discover new habitats !