Dragonflies are insects belonging, by a taxonomic point of view, to the order of Odonata. In the Cuneo region (as well as in the rest of Europe) the species one can observe belong to two suborders: Zygoptera and Anisoptera.

Zygoptera, commonly known as “damselflies”, are thinly built and mid-to-small sized dragonflies. Their fore- and hindwings have similar shape. When at rest wings are folded along the body or held straight upward or half-spread. Their head is wider than longer and the eyes are widely separated at the head extremity, without touching each other. The distance between them is usually bigger than eye width.

On the contrary in Anisoptera, the “real” dragonflies, the wings at rest are spread out creating a 90° angle with the body. The eyes are often very close and in many species they touch each other. Anisoptera are bigger-sized and some species can exceed 8 cm in length and 10 in wingspan.

In these pages we briefly describe dragonfly body, life cycle and “exuviae”, the “evidence” of a complete life cycle in a place. For an indispensable deeper study you can rely on the texts listed in the “Literature” page.