• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
lizard

Moggill Creek

Catchment Group

  • Home
  • About MCCG
    • History Of MCCG
    • Catchment In Context
    • Governance
    • Benefits to our catchment
    • Projects
    • Why Do We Care
    • Volunteering
    • The Cottage
  • Get Involved
  • The Nursery
  • Events & Activities
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Projects
    • Cottage Talks
    • Kids’ Day
    • Working Bees
    • Photography Competition
    • Platypus Survey
    • Creek Health Monitoring
    • Private Land Rehabilitation
  • Catchment Field Guides
    • Birds common in our Catchment
    • Butterflies in our Catchment
    • Declared plants in our Catchment
    • Dragonflies in our Catchment
    • Freshwater fish in our catchment
    • Freshwater turtles in our catchment
    • Frogs in our Catchment
    • Ladybirds in our Catchment
    • Mammals in our Catchment
    • Rare and vagrant birds in our Catchment
  • Plants
  • Wildlife
    • Birds
    • Butterflies
    • Dung Beetles
    • Feral Animals
    • Koalas
    • Native Fish
    • Platypus
  • Landscape
    • The Creeks
    • Soils
    • Vegetation
    • Land Use
    • Geology
    • Land Restoration
  • Media Centre
  • News & Newsletters
    • Latest News
    • News Archive
    • MCCG Newsletters
  • Bush Bites
  • Reference Material
  • Useful Links
  • Membership
  • Contact MCCG

Wildlife Matters! Predator and prey – Common Glider Dragonfly

January 3, 2022 by mccgadmin

Dragonflies are primitive animals that have successfully survived since Gondwana times.

They are important insects that are both predator and prey and feature in the food chain of many of our most important aquatic animals. The adults are very strong hunters eating insects often taken on the wing and eaten in flight. They feed on moths, mosquitos and flies. Their aquatic larvae are voracious feeders that have an extendable lower jaw. They eat fish as large as themselves and feed on mosquito wrigglers, worms and shrimp. In turn, locally, they are a large part of the diet of Platypus and Eel-tailed Catfish that are adapted to detect them with the Platypus’s electrical detection ability and the Catfish’s whiskers. Dragonflies are such strong fliers that they can even evade capture by swallows. The only bird species I have photographed with a dragonfly is a Restless Flycatcher.

The Dragonfly  illustrated is a Common Glider Tramea loewii. After changing from a final stage nymph at the water’s edge it flies well away from the water to feed on mainly flying insects. If it is a male, after it has fed for a few days, it returns to find an area of the slow stream or pond where it established itself on a favourite twig where it can observe the patch of water it defends waiting for females to arrive. It defends its’ patch ferociously which is evident by the damage to the wings of the one in the photo. The females also bulk up away from the water and return when they are ready to mate and lay their eggs singly in the water. They lay about 1000 eggs which quickly hatch and go through 10 or more nymph stages before they emerge as adults. The time from egg to adult varies due to temperature of the water and food supply and can be as short as three months to more than a year.

Ed Frazer

Common Glider Dragonfly (Tramea loewii) – Photo Ed Frazer

Published in

 

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Latest Newsletter
  • Photo Competition
  • Projects
  • Creek Health Monitoring
  • Calendar of Events
  • Working Bee Calendar
  • Catchment Field Guides
Get  Involved!
MCCG on Facebook MCCG on Facebook
MCCG on YouTube MCCG on YouTube
MCCG on Instagram MCCG on Instagram

Secondary Sidebar

  • Home
  • About MCCG
    • History Of MCCG
    • Catchment In Context
    • Governance
    • Benefits to our catchment
    • Projects
      • Old Gold Creek Sawmill Forest Walk
      • Anzac Tree Daisy Project
      • Bird Project
      • Bird Project – Deerhurst Street Park
      • Creek Health Monitoring
      • Pacey Road
      • Rowena Street Park Restoration Project
      • Streamsavers
      • Smith’s Scrub
    • Why Do We Care
    • Volunteering
    • The Cottage
  • Get Involved
  • The Nursery
  • Events & Activities
    • Old Gold Creek Sawmill Forest Walk
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Projects
    • Cottage Talks
    • Kids’ Day
    • Working Bees
    • Photo Competition
    • Platypus Survey
    • Creek Health Monitoring
    • Private Land Rehabilitation
  • Catchment Field Guides
    • Birds common in our Catchment
    • Butterflies in our Catchment
    • Declared plants in our Catchment
    • Dragonflies in our Catchment
    • Freshwater fish in our catchment
    • Freshwater turtles in our catchment
    • Frogs in our Catchment
    • Ladybirds in our Catchment
    • Mammals in our Catchment
    • Rare and vagrant birds in our Catchment
  • Plants
  • Wildlife
    • Birds
    • Butterflies
    • Dung Beetles
    • Feral Animals
    • Koalas
    • Native Fish
    • Platypus
  • Landscape
    • The Creeks
    • Soils
    • Vegetation
    • Land Use
    • Geology
    • Land Restoration
  • Media Centre
  • News & Newsletters
    • Latest News
    • News Archive
    • MCCG Newsletters
  • Bush Bites
  • Reference Material
  • Useful Links
  • Membership
  • Contact MCCG

© MOGGILL CREEK CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT GROUP INC.
ABN 57 981 459 029
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | PRIVACY POLICY | CONTACT US

ACNC-Registered-Charity-Logo_RGB

Proudly supported by

aus-gov-logo
BCC-Logo-ILoveBNE

© MOGGILL CREEK CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT GROUP INC.
ABN 57 981 459 029
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | PRIVACY POLICY | CONTACT US

Proudly supported by

supported-by