Jewelled winged wonders (World environment day special)

This is photograph of Green Marsh Hawk dragonfly I had clicked at Shivpuri Tourist Village in District Shivpuri. This is also called slender Skimmer or Orthetrum Sabina. It belongs to family Libellulidae (skimmer) and is common dragonfly of gardens and fields. This dragonfly sits motionless on shrubs and dry wigs for a long time. It hunts flying insects such as flies, small butterflies and dragonflies. This World Environment Day I wanted to dedicate it to these jewelled winged wonders, hence this picture and here is more information on them.

Environment and Dragonflies

Dragonflies and damselflies are amongst the most attractive of creatures on earth, the first to have conquered the aerial domain. They collectively are called odonates, and are one of the most common insects flying over forest, fields, meadows, ponds and rivers. India is highly diverse with more than 500 known species. Odonata are one of the ancient orders of insects. It first appeared during the about 250 million years ago.

Odonates are primarily aquatic insects hence makes them a good indicator of wetland health. Madhya Pradesh wetlands support a rich odonate fauna. Odonates are integral part of wetland ecosystems and are reliable indicators of its health and important biocontrol agent of these harmful insects. In the urban areas of Thailand, larvae of the container breeding dragonfly, Granite ghost (Bradinopyga geminata) was successfully used to control Aedes mosquito, an important vector of the dengue and Chikungunya fever.