Dragonfly Minibeast Adventure with Jess

Hello, adventurers! I'm Jess.

It's time for a minibeast adventure!

# Feelers out, what's about?

# Creeping, sleeping

# Under stones here and there

# Nesting, resting Minibeasts are everywhere

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# Look and listen, stop and stare

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# A Minibeast Adventure

# Feelers out, what's about?

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# Look and listen, stop and stare

# Mini worlds for us to share

# A Minibeast Adventure. #

With Jess!

I've just spotted some of the most magical minibeasts here by the pond.

They're dragonflies.

They are flying around the reeds, looking for insects to eat.

There're quite fast so they can be quite difficult to spot.

(Look! There's one.)

Look at its skinny, blue body and shiny wings.

They're fantastic flyers.

Think about a creature like a bee,

its wings move up and down like this.

But a dragonfly can move each of its four wings separately,

which makes it brilliant at manoeuvring.

They can fly up and down, side to side,

backwards and forwards and hover.

That makes them brilliant at hunting cos they can catch

other insects as they're flying through the air.

Something else that makes them good at hunting -

their huge eyes, which take up most of their heads!

They look pretty strange, don't they?

Dragonflies spend most of their lives around water.

In fact, dragonflies spend most of their lives IN water,

because baby dragonflies are underwater creatures called nymphs.

So a bit like caterpillars turn into butterflies,

dragonfly nymphs turn into dragonflies!

I've got one in my tree house to show you. Come and have a look.

The dragonfly spends most of its life as a nymph,

but finally crawls out of the water

and turns into a dragonfly.

They're pretty amazing.

Here's a dragonfly nymph.

Doesn't look much like a dragonfly yet, does it?

It's a very fierce little creature that

lives at the bottom of the pond eating insects and small fish.

If you have water near where you live, then you might be

lucky enough to find a dragonfly. Shall we give it a try?

Come on!

Whatever the weather, we're off together on a minibeast adventure.

Hi, Morgan. Hi, Eva.

BOTH: Hi, Jess.

Fantastic to see you.

Today, we're going on a dragonfly adventure.

Yeah!

-Have you seen a dragonfly before?

-BOTH: Yeah.

What are they like?

They've got like wings and they're like a caterpillar shape.

Caterpillar shape? Oh, well, they do have quite a caterpillar shape.

Well, we're very lucky today because dragonflies like the sun

and it's a lovely day today!

So I think we might find some.

-Have you got your feelers ready?

-Yes!

BOTH: Feelers out, what's about?

That's right! Feelers out, what's about?

ALL: We're off on a minibeast adventure!

Dragonflies, when they're babies, live in ponds

and they're called dragonfly nymphs.

We're having a look in this pond

and doing some pond dipping to see if we can find any.

I'll fill this with some water so if we catch anything,

it's got water to swim around in. So take your nets and put them in,

and see what you can find.

Oh, that's a good one. Turn that in here.

Eva, can you see what we've got?

-Look, I catch that!

-Wow, what is it?

-So fast!

-Really fast.

That's called a water boatman.

You see how it's swimming like it's got oars?

-And look, there's a spider one.

-Oh, this one here?

-Yeah.

Actually, that isn't a spider. Let's have a look at it,

-a bit more closely.

-It's a swim spider.

What do you think it is, Eva?

-It's a baby dragonfly.

-That's right, Eva.

How do they live underwater then?

Good question. How do they live underwater?

They might have... And the other ones might have the wings to flap

and they might sit down and then might still do it

and they might lay their eggs and then they can swim.

That's exactly what happens!

The mummy dragonfly comes down and lands on something like this

and lays her eggs and then,

the babies are in the water and they can swim.

And to turn into a dragonfly, it climbs up a stalk like this

and stops and makes itself a sleeping bag, and goes to sleep.

And when it wakes up, it's got wings and it can fly

and it's a dragonfly!

So it's while sleeping they turn into dragonflies?

Yes, while it's sleeping, it turns into a dragonfly.

And it feels like, what's on my back?

He looks over and he says, "Oh, wings."

Wings.

The babies can swim and the adults can fly.

How weird is that?!

-Really weird.

-We should put him back?

-I think we should put him back.

-BOTH: Yeah.

Yeah, we must always put the creatures back after we find them.

-Bye.

-Bye.

There's one, there.

-Did you see it swimming away?

-Yeah. It was going like...

What part of your body do you breathe through?

Yes, it's your nose and mouth.

But a dragonfly nymph breathes through

a different part of its body -

it breathes through its bottom.

Ha-ha.

Let's sit here away from the edge.

Dragonflies love water,

so this should be a great place to spot them.

-Would you like to look with binoculars?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Here you go.

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

I can see...

a butterfly.

Oh, there's a beautiful white butterfly over there.

I can see other... Oh, other, other, other!

Oh, my goodness! That one's enormous.

It looks a bit grey-blueish.

-It was quite blue.

-Look, there's a baby one.

Oh, it does look like a baby dragonfly, doesn't it?

That one isn't actually a dragonfly. It's a damselfly.

-Have you ever heard of a damselfly before?

-No.

-No.

Damselflies are very similar to dragonflies, but they're smaller

and do different things with their wings. Can you see what

-it does when it lands?

-It holds its wings like this...

Like this, yeah.

And did you notice earlier what that big one did when he landed on it?

Yeah.

Oh, like that!

So that is the difference between damselflies and dragonflies.

Wow!

But are damselflies so straight like that? Like a little stick?

Like a stick, yeah. What are dragonflies' bodies like?

They're like colours.

Like painting colours on them over there. And there's a brown one.

Can you see it?

They got two wings on that side, two wings on that side.

Yeah, they have two wings on each side.

-There's one there!

-Oh, wow. Look, what's it doing with its wings?

-It's going ble-ble-ble.

-Ha-ha, did you see?

They were all going in different directions. Did you see it

-go backwards?

-Yeah.

-I think they've got eyes because they're things.

They have! Their eyes are so big that they start here

and go all the way to here.

-They can see backwards?

-They can say everywhere.

-Can you imagine if you could see in all directions?

-Yeah.

-Would that be cool?

-BOTH: Yeah.

That was a great minibeast adventure.

We were so lucky to find dragonflies and dragonfly nymphs too.

Maybe you could go on a dragonfly adventure.

It's a very special adventure,

because they are so difficult to spot.

And as they live near water,

you'll need to take a grown-up adventurer with you too.

Feelers out, what's about?

Happy hunting, adventurers!