Dragonflies are among the most ancient and perfected aerial predators on Earth, with a lineage stretching back 300 million years. The common green darner is one of the largest and most powerful North American dragonflies, undertaking one of the few known insect migrations of thousands of kilometres. Dragonflies have the highest prey capture success rate of any predator studied — up to 95% of hunts succeed — achieved through a combination of extraordinary flight control, predictive neural processing, and multi-faceted visual acuity.
About the Dragonfly
Anax junius
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💡 Fun Facts
01
Dragonflies have a 95% hunting success rate — the highest of any predator, beating lions (25%) and great white sharks (50%).
02
Their compound eyes cover almost their entire head and contain up to 30,000 individual facets with 4 types of color-sensitive photoreceptors (compared to 3 in humans).
03
Dragonflies can fly in all directions including backward and sideways, hover perfectly still, and perform sudden turns at full speed.
04
They are one of the few insect species known to migrate, with some populations flying up to 6,000 km between North America and the Caribbean.
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Fossil dragonflies from 300 million years ago had wingspans of over 70 cm — larger than many modern birds.
📍 Where to Find This Animal
Habitat Types:
Freshwater Lakes & Wetlands
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