Speaking of dragonflies, everyone is certainly familiar with it. It is a kind of insect that is beneficial to people. In the past, there were many dragonflies, especially when it was overcast and about to rain, the sky was full of dragonflies.

At that time, catching dragonflies was also an entertainment activity for us.Dragonflies are insects with the most eyes in the world. Dragonfly's eyes are large and bulging, occupying most of the head, there are three monocular, compound eye is composed of more than 28,000 small eyes, with excellent vision. Dragonflies like wet environments, so they usually fly in ponds or rivers, and their larvae also need to develop in water.

In addition to preying on various other insects, dragonflies also have the habit of cannibalizing each other between species. When preying, they will grab their prey hard, and the large amount of coarse hair on their feet can help it hold on to the prey so that it cannot escape. It can bite its prey and can eat its own weight in food within 30 minutes.

The dragonfly flies very fast, some can reach 100 kilometers per hour, and it can stay still in the air for a short time. It can't flexibly change direction when it flies forward, and it needs to stay still before turning. When resting, the wings are still stretched out, that is, the wings cannot be folded, so there should be considerable space for the resting place, mostly on the branches.

Because there were a lot of dragonflies in the past, people didn't pay much attention to them, but now it's different. In recent years, there have been fewer and fewer dragonflies, and even the chirping of birds has become more and more monotonous, and the bees and butterflies have become more and more Less and less, you can't see it without careful observation, why is this? Let's talk about this today.

1. Human activities

Human activities have caused the dragonfly's living environment to be destroyed, and its living space has also been continuously squeezed by humans, so it will become less and less. For example, with the construction of factories and urbanization, a large number of small ponds disappeared, and large lakes were also used by some factories, which is one of the reasons why dragonflies are rare today.

2. Insecticides

Farmers now start to use a lot of pesticides. After all, if the crops are free from pests and diseases, they have to use pesticides, thus cutting off the food source of dragonflies. In order to prevent and control insects on crops and fruit trees, farmers spray a large amount of pesticides every year. Some smaller insects are poisoned and preyed on by dragonflies, resulting in the death of dragonflies.

3. Environmental changes

Acid rain and factory sewage affected dragonfly reproduction and growth. The dry land increases seasonally, the water area decreases, and some hydrangea die before they turn into dragonflies due to the loss of water source. Ponds and paddy fields in rural areas are the main living places for ducks and geese, and some of the water flies may be eaten by them.

In fact, it’s not just that there are fewer dragonflies. Many common insects and animals in the countryside are now a lot less, such as fish and shrimp, eels, loach, fireflies, etc. These little things that we used to be very familiar with are very unfamiliar to today’s children. Yes, children only know these things exist through pictures.

The decline of dragonflies is not directly related to the mass extinction, but there is an indirect relationship. After all, every creature on the earth is worthy of human protection. If dragonflies are extinct one day, it must have a great linkage with human activities.