ABSTRACT

Order Odonata, popularly known as dragonflies and damselflies, are primarily associated with wetlands and surrounding landscape. Dragonflies lay broad and elliptical eggs either in flight or by perching on an overhanging vegetation or rock. In dragonflies, the inner surface of the rectum is foliate and richly supplied by trachae. Dragonflies are very popular in folklore and stories from time immemorial in different Indian cultures. Adult dragonflies are aerial predators and catch small insects like mosquitoes, midges, small butterflies, moths, and bees on wing. Dragonflies capture their prey by perching at a vantage point and making short sallying flights or by flying continuously. The last abdominal segments of the male have claspers, which are used to hold the female by the posterior side of head in the case of dragonflies and by prothorax in damselflies. Dragonflies found at undisturbed habitats with good riparian vegetation were specialists with narrow distribution.