Natural Notes: Dragonflies and Damselflies
The following blog post consists of my notes from a lecture titled "Odanata and Forest Ecology" held at Crabtree Nature Center in Barrington, Illinois in August 2016. The lecture was delivered by Laura Brown and Nigeen Almassi, naturalists with the Forest Preserves of Cook County. Introduction Dragonflies and Damselflies are a showy group of insects in the taxonomic order Odanata . The primary differences between Dragonflies (class Anisoptera) and Damselflies (class Zygoptera) are their overall size (dragonflies are usually larger), the position of their wings at rest (dragonflies hold them out while damselflies usually hold them over their abdomen), the thickness of their abdomens (dragonfly abdomens are usually thicker), and their hunting habits (dragonflies are strong fliers and damselflies gently glean prey from vegetation or the water's surface). Most damselfly wings are clear while some species, such as the Ebony Jewelwing, have colored wings. Table 1 ou