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Sticker of Bush giant dragonfly
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Bush giant dragonfly

Uropetala carovei
Name means: “its Māori name kapokapowai means water snatcher”
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsDragonflies and damselfliesForests and woods6 legs

The bush giant dragonfly is the biggest dragonfly in New Zealand. Its dark body has yellow spots, and its wings can be wider than your hand. It lives near streams in damp native forests and is found nowhere else in the world.

Lives in
Only in New Zealand, in damp native forests by streams
Length
9.5 cm (3.7 in)
up to
Wingspan
13 cm (5.1 in)
up to
Top speed
about 50 km/h (31 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Dragonflies have no sting. Just watch it zoom past.
What does it eat?
It catches butterflies, cicadas and wasps and eats them while flying. Its babies hunt at night from their burrows.
For real!Photo of Bush giant dragonfly
Picture by Ed Mitchell. CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Bush giant dragonfly about 9.5 cm long (3.7 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)

How wide are its wings?

Bush giant dragonfly wings about 13 cm tip to tip (5.1 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)A house cat about 50 cm (20 in)
as long as 3 toy building bricks in a rowwings as wide as your handcould fly across a whole football pitch in 7.6 secondsmoves 150 times its own body length every second

How big is Bush giant dragonfly compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its baby, called a nymph, digs a burrow in a muddy stream bank and lives there for about five years.

2

The nymph comes out at night to grab prey near the door of its burrow, using a jaw that shoots out fast.

3

The mother glues her eggs onto clumps of moss on shady stream banks.

4

A Māori story tells how huge swarms of these dragonflies once helped a leader win a battle by flying into his enemies' faces.

5

Males are very bossy and guard their own patch of stream.

you asked

Most asked questions about Bush giant dragonfly

?How big is the bush giant dragonfly?

Its body can be up to 9.5 centimetres long and its wings up to 13 centimetres across.

?What does the bush giant dragonfly eat?

Other insects like butterflies, cicadas and wasps, which it eats on the wing.

?Is the bush giant dragonfly dangerous?

No. It has no sting and is harmless to people.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Uropetala carovei
Named by
White, 1843
Group
Dragonflies and damselflies
Family
Petaluridae
Classification
Insecta > Odonata > Petaluridae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Carové's giant dragonfly, Kapokapowai

Where the facts come from

  1. Uropetala carovei (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Ed Mitchell. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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