How long do dragonflies live?
. The shortest life-cycle recorded is approx. 6 months from egg to death of the flying adult. Some of the larger species have been known to complete this cycle in 6-7 years. This perhaps surprising longevity is explained by the fact that the dragonfly spends the greater part of its life as an aquatic predator in larval form preying on other invertebrates and is rarely seen by people. As flying adults damselflies may only live for one to two weeks. The larger flying dragonflies live for between three weeks to four months. Many die early from predation by birds, fish, spiders, frogs and even other dragonflies! Bad weather can cause starvation as they cannot fly in windy and wet conditions which prevent them from catching other insects.
The different life stages of a dragonfly are the egg, larvae (nymph), and the adult (imago). The larval stage may last for as little as three or four weeks (Pantala flavescens – Wandering Glider) to as much as five years (Family Aeshnidae – Darners) for some species; particularly in the more northern latitudes. Adult dragonflies, depending on the species, likely live for only a couple of months at best. The average life expectancy, however, may be much less than this because they are caught and eaten by a number of predators; including fish, frogs, turtles, other insects, spiders, birds, and many even fall prey to the automobile or other forms of human transportation.
