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An adult dragonfly has three distinct segments, the head, thorax, and abdomen, as in all insects. It has a chitinous exoskeleton of hard plates held together with flexible membranes. The head is large with very short antennae. It is dominated by the two compound eyes, which cover most of its surface.
Damselflies tend to be less robust, and appear weaker in flight; their wings are narrow near the base and (in most species) held folded back over the abdomen when perched. Dragonfly eyes occupy much of the animal's head, touching (or nearly touching) each other across the face. In damselflies, there is typically a gap in between the eyes.
Discarded exoskeleton of dragonfly nymph Exoskeleton of cicada attached to a Tridax procumbens (colloquially known as the tridax daisy)An exoskeleton (from Greek έξω éxō "outer" [1] and σκελετός skeletós "skeleton" [2] [3]) is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the internal organs ...
Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly.They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwings, respectively, though a few insects lack hindwings, even rudiments.
An adult dragonfly's compound eyes have nearly 24,000 ommatidia each. Dragonflies can be mistaken for the closely related damselflies , which make up the other odonatan infraorder ( Zygoptera ) and are similar in body plan , though usually lighter in build; however, the wings of most dragonflies are held flat and away from the body, while ...
"The numbers of those [exoskeletons] was just mind boggling." The exoskeletons of four dragonflies that emerged to migrate in Wisconsin. How to get involved in dragonfly watching
Other examples of Carboniferous arthropod gigantism included Meganeura, an eagle-sized dragonfly, and Pulmonoscorpius, a scorpion more than 3 feet (1 meter) long.
For instance, when monitoring dragonfly populations, the presence of exuviae of a species demonstrates that the species has completed its full life cycle from egg to adult in a habitat. [1] However, it has also been suggested that the fact that exuviae can be hard to find could lead to an underestimation of insect species compared to, for ...