Missouri Animals Tule bluet   (Enallagma carunculatum) Arthropoda: Insects: Dragon and Damselflies Native North American arthropod Habitat: flying in the air over ponds and lakes in Missouri Diet: mosquitoes, gnats, flies ID Features: green-blue body Natural History: Blue damselflies are common predatory insects around ponds. They feed on other insects in flight. Blue damselflies lay eggs in ponds that hatch into predatory larvae. The larvae feed on aquatic insects in the pond. At metamorphosis, they climb out of the pond on a plant stalk and climb out of their skeleton. They extend their wings to dry. Once they are in flight, they feed on flying insects. Damselflies differ from dragonflies in size and habit: dragonflies hold their wings out and flat while damselflies hold them together, and dragonflies are larger than damselflies.

The graphics, text, and sound are from: By Eugene Zelenko (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons