Things you need to know about DRAGONFLIES!

Being a fisherman/angler I see lots of gragonflies. They often come up close to check you out but I have never been bitten by one. I have been bitten by a ladybird, it's not great but it's not as bad as a bee sting.

As a warden I was showing a group a ruddy darter that I captured, it bit me, it didn't hurt much, but certainly took me by suprise.

Bahaha teaspoons is hilarious! Love that.
We have royal spoonbills in nz and they are pretty cool too. 😊

Here in Alabama, we have so many dragonflies. They're very friendly, they'll land on my fingers and let me carry them around the yard. They'll fly over if you chirp at them and really like to drink fresh water out of your hand and will eat mosquitos of you catch them and hand feed them. I've handled thousands in the last three months and have never been bitten. I have been smacked with wings for doing something too fast with them on my hand.

Thank you for a great video

Brilliant info, learned a lot, many thanks.

Why have they not evolved further over the intervening 100,000,000+ years?

Very informative at as always Liam. Dragon flies do have an impressive set of mandibles on them. As a child I was told they could bite, and always handled them with care and caution. They would sometimes get caught in the hospital’s library windows which were expansive; but didn’t have opening windows. I used to therefore catch and release them
Using glass and postcard method. Seeing them so close up I could see how dangerous they must have been on the wing, with their prey not standing much of a chance once caught in the jaws of a dragonfly. As you say though there is n factual evidence of human skin being broken or reaction to a “DF” nip!
Regards David

Never been bitten by a dragonfly, I did have one fly alongside me while driving down a country lane in Wales, it was surprisingly fast, flew alongside then accelerated away, large looked over 3 inches, iridescent Blue and Green.

Great and interesting video, thanks. I have joked when spying a larger beastie that one could see passengers "looking out of the windows", they are brilliant.
They appear to follow the same route when searching for food, much like a bat.

Well made

I always get a buzz (no pun intended) when I see them near back garden/allotment I also love seeing the hummingbird hawk moth which is a different species but equally fascinating. I once tried filming the latter but it was far too quick for me but such a pleasure to experience.

This is fascinating to watch especially their manoeuvrability on the wing, I used to be in the RAF as an aircraft mechanic and saw how much was involved in getting something airborne! We’ve not really conquered flight, we’ve only succeeded in avoiding stalling! 😂

Once again I will ask that one is taken to outerspace; this will make a very interesting experiment as they are spatially aware. And to change the subject-- We also need to find how many 'G's a octopus can stand as ufo's (if they realy exist) may be 'maned by animals' contaning nearly 100% water because of the fantastic acceleration.

Liam I absolutely love your videos but I have to ask- do you shoot it all? And if you do, how? If not, where do you get your stock footage? Keep it up anyway!

Once again Liam an outstanding video. Where do you gain all your knowledge?

I love them too, coolest insect ever. Great vid, thank you so much!!

Thanks so very much for this, I love these fabulous creatures and keep watch in our garden for them every summer.
I have a huge one that was caught in a couriers van bonnet who delivered items to us, I looked after it for an hour or so before it died from an injury to it's head. I placed it in a glazed frame and have informed the wildlife people all about it.

My uncle who lived in Norwich, was fascinated by dragonflies. He wrote and illustrated a book about them. All done in nice hand writing and artistic drawing Not something that was published. Just for his own enjoyment. He never even told anyone he had done it. We found it after he died. His headstone has a dragonfly engrave on it. He loved wildlife and was passionate about protecting it.

Thank you. I really enjoyed your informative video. I made a small suburban garden pond life pond last summer and have been pleasantly surprised
by the number of dragonflies and damselflies that have breed there.

Look at a broad-bodied chaser, the insides of the wings are white and that portion is scalloped and looks like a dragon's wing. That's my guess, anyway!

A lovely video , thank you ! I recall from many years ago as a very small boy, (I'm 77 years now), of watching large Dragonflies hawking after flying insects & being able to hear the '' tick-tick -tick '' sound from with I think their 'jaws' as they made attempts to snatch their prey & missing ! In those days I could also hear bats as they also chased their prey at night as well !

I've been biten by a dragonfly in my junior high. I rescued one in the classroom and brought it outdoor, then I placed it on my finger, it stood for a while and before it took departure, it bit my finger😂 I didn't bleed but it was a little painful. I guess it was just scared.

Top man ❤

Cracking video: perfect pace, gentlenesss & content - thank you.

INTERESTING...

Dragonflies are like nature’s helicopters! Love them! Loved this video, of course 👍🏽

I’ve got a decent pond in the garden, wildlife only, no fish. The Emperor dragonflies are amazing flyers. The can hovering one spot then dart away at tremendous speed and fly in a huge circle up over the garden and the back of the house then return to hover in exactly the spot ,screaming in at about 30 mph and stopping dead on where they started. Uncanny.

Fascinating, I was completely enthralled

i love these insects. they always remind me of helicopters. 😊👍

Thanks, that was really interesting

Also, dragonflies are the most successful known predator.. With about 95-97% accuracy (lions about 30% and tigers about 10-15%).. If dragonfly spots the target, it is done.. Loved the notion, in some other yt video, that if mosquitoes (main prey of dragonflies) had stories, there would be zero stories about dragonflies, simply because none of them would survive to tell the tale :)
Thank you for another great video :D

Only thinking been nipped by was a praying mantis

Great video, but not seeing many this summer.

Liam, I've enjoyed your videos up until now when you started preaching the religion of millions of years.
When did you first believe?

In French....'Libuelle'.

I know how long it takes them to break out of their larval skin, one decided to do it in the open-top of my fishing bag. It was about two hours waiting before I could get out something to eat.

I didn't realise dragonflies were so impressive in terms of speed and vision! But it makes sense for a creature that has managed to survive for so many millions of years.

I dug a small pond in my garden this spring and have had both Damselflies and Dragonflies laying eggs and flying about it. Only the commonest of species, but pleased enough for a fresh and small pond.

why don't they eat their emptied shells just like crabs do after moulting

Just saved one this afternoon. It was a beautiful, huge, bright green and black one. It was lying upside down, exhausted and thin, just inside a Supermarket door. As I offered my finger to its legs it clung on and I placed it in a small bush outside, near a small glade. I went back after a minute or two to check on it and it had plumped up considerably. As I turned to go, it flew off circling me and headed off to the cool glade. 😊😊😊

"Psst... Did you know that Dragonflies are really radio controlled drones!?" 🤔😲 😅🤣😂
They are stunning fliers. But you failed to mention that they have one of the highest success rates for hunting. About a 97% success rate.
And as a comparison, a Tigers is about 10 to 20%. Single lions 17 to 19% but a pride is up to 30%. Jaguars is really poor. As low as 5% while the Leopard's is varied. Some say 20%. Others around 40% while some even say it's 90% which is where the Nile Crocodiles hunting success lies.
As for being bitten by one. A flying adult. Nope. Not painful. It didn't hurt me. But as a nymph with that telescope, needle sharp clamp of a mouth. They can draw blood if (A) it's big enough and (B) you're clumsy when handling one. So get a couple really sharp needles and stick them in your finger. If it hurts, then so will a dragonfly nymphs bite!
Good video. I didn't think we had that number in the UK. I'd have gone with 1/2 of what you said.

Thanks Liam, these are amazing little creatures.

There's something kind of magical about dragonflies and damselflies. Great video, thanks.

That was a great video Liam, so much content
Facts & figures, your quite some statistician . I bet you were good a maths at school 😁👍 well done , loads I didn’t know about dragon flies such as they can fly up side down. Amazing 🤩

Fantastic Liam thank you 👍🏼🍻

Great video Liam.

Seeing a dragonfly emerge from their larvae skin is truly astonishing!

These are such fascinating creatures! Hope life is good with you and fatherhood is treating you well!

Great video Liam and we love listening to all the information you give.