Lathrop’s “Mosquito Hawks”

By Barbara Walvoord

First published in the Lathrop Lamp Post for August 2-8, 2019

“Mosquito hawk” is one nickname for a dragonfly.  All of its diet is insects, including a lot of mosquitoes.  And it catches its insect prey in flight—that’s the “hawk” part.

Photo by Lathrop resident William E Holloway, July, 2019.

Photo by Lathrop resident William E Holloway, July, 2019

Catching insects in flight is not easy, as we know from trying to swipe at them as they whine around our ears.  Now imagine that w

Dragonflies Belong at Lathrop

by Barbara Walvoord

We see a lot of dragonflies around Lathrop this time of year, and they uniquely belong here.

First of all, they are old–250 million years old.

Second, dragonflies live near ponds and wetlands. That’s because they start their lives in the water. Females lay their eggs on the water’s surface or on aquatic plants. Hatchlings hunt other aquatic invertebrates. They molt 9-17 times as they grow, and finally crawl out of the water.

The first few days out of the water are very dangerous. After the final molt, a dragonfly’s body is soft and pale. After swimming for all