Complete Guide To The Comet Darner Dragonfly

Comet Darner Dragonfly Notes

• Comet Darner dragonflies live through North Carolina but are less common than other dragonfly species.
• Look for them near shallow, grassy ponds and lakes with few to no fish.
  • Comet Darner dragonflies stick close to water and rarely travel very far inland.
• Comets are active only in the mornings and early afternoon.
  • They long beats along the water edge and perch only rarely during their active hours.
  • When they do perch, they hang vertically from their very long legs on twigs and tree trunks.
• All dragonflies are predators during each stage of life and Comet Darners are no exception.
  • Since Comet Darners prefer to live and reproduce in freshwater without fish, their larvae (called “naiads”) become top predators in the food web.
  • One study researched the effects of the presence of predatory Comet Darner naiads on frog tadpoles. The researchers found that small Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans, formerly Rana clamitans) and Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus, formerly Rana catesbeiana) tadpoles reduced their activity around Comet Darner nymphs and thus reduced their growth rate.
  • The effect of the Comet Darner naiads on the frogs was so strong that “small Green Frogs were ~24 times less active and 54 times less apt to be above the tank bottom when in the presence of caged Anax” (Peacor and Werner 2000, https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9658(2000)081[1998:PEOAAO]2.0.CO;2).