My PowerPoint is based on the life stages of the dragonfly. The dragonfly goes through 3 stages. There are pictures and details included. On the last slide of the PowerPoint there is a video that shows the life of a dragonfly and as well as a narrator going through each detail.

1. Dragonflies
Ms. Weimann
Third Grade ages between 7-9 years old

2. The Stages of a Dragonfly
Stage 1: The Egg
Stage
Stage2: The
Nymph Stage
Stage 3: The
Adult Dragonfly

3. Stage 1: The Egg Stage
• Dragonflies start their life as eggs.
• After breeding, a female dragonfly
selects a likely looking pond or
marsh in which to lay her eggs.
• Dragonfly eggs are only laid in still
water, as eggs laid in quickly moving
will wash into fish-feeding areas.
• Depending on the species, a female
can lay hundreds or thousands of
eggs during her lifespan.
• In tropical regions dragonfly eggs
may hatch in as little as five days. In
winter temperatures drop near or
below freezing regions, dragonfly
eggs usually won't hatch until the
following spring.

4. Stage 2: The Nymph Stage
• When dragonflies hatch they are
called nymphs.
• Dragonfly nymphs are voracious
predators that have no
resemblance to their adult
forms.
•Dragonfly nymphs molt (shed their skin)
up to 12 times, depending on species,
and can spend as long as 4 years as
nymphs.
•Dragonflies living in tropical regions
spend less time in the nymph form while
dragonflies living in temperate regions
will spend longer as nymphs as the onset
of winter delays maturation.

5. Nymph Stage Continued
• Dragonfly nymphs are aquatic. They live in ponds and
marshes until emerging to molt for one final time.
• During the final molting the nymph's skin splits and the
nymph emerges as an adult dragonfly.
• Dragonfly nymphs are referred to as hemimetabolous.
• This means they don't form a cocoon or pupate before
emerging as an adult.

6. The Adult Dragonfly Stage
• Once the nymph is fully grown,
and the weather is right, it will
complete the metamorphosis
into a dragonfly by crawling out
of the water up the stem of a
plant.
The nymph will shed its skin onto the
stem of the plant and will then be a
young dragonfly. The skin that the
nymph left behind is called the EXUVIA
and you can find the EXUVIA still stuck
to the stem for a long time after the
dragonfly has left it.

7. Adult Dragonfly Stage Continued
• Once the dragonfly leaves
the exuvia it is a full
grown dragonfly. The
dragonfly will hunt for
food and begin to look for
a mate.
• Once the dragonfly finds a mate, the
female will find a body of calm water
that will be a good place to lay her
eggs, and the life cycle of the dragonfly
begins all over again.
• Adult dragonflies only live about
two months.

8. What Do Dragonflies Eat?
Similarly, they also
feed on ants, termites,
butterflies, gnats, bees
and other insects and
tend to hunt in groups
when large colonies of
ants or termites are
spotted.
As Nymphs, the dragonflies eat
mosquito larvae, other aquatic
insects and worms, and for a little
variety even small aquatic
vertebrates like tadpoles and small
fish.
The adult dragonfly uses the basket
formed by its legs to catch insects while
flying. The adult dragonfly likes to eat
gnats, mayflies, flies, mosquitoes and
other small flying insects. They
sometimes eat butterflies, moths and
bees too.
Adult Dragonflies are born
rulers of their domain and
they prove it to just about
every insect that thinks it can
pull a fast one on this killing
machine.

9. Extra Cool Facts!
• Adult dragonflies eat just about anything that is edible
and can be caught. They are a treasure for humanity
because they keep mosquito populations under strict
control by feasting on them when they are in
abundance.
• A dragonfly can eat food equal to its own weight in
about 30 minutes. Which roughly translates into a you
trying to eat as much as 100 lb…let alone in half an
hour. We don’t eat that amount of food in a week!
•To give you a little insight, the dragonfly that is many times the
size of a mosquito or a housefly needs to flap its wings a mere 30
times a minute when compared to a mosquito’s 600 times a
minute and the housefly’s 1000 flaps a minute requirement to
keep them flying and in peak maneuverability.
•Such is the power that the dragonfly is equipped with and given
its low-energy speed capability, very, very few insects can escape
its basket shaped grabbing limbs that it uses to clutch on to its
prey before crushing the critter into a gooey mass, with its
powerful mandibles and swallowing it

10. Dragonfly Life-Cycle Video
• Life Cycle Video