The story of illegal hunting and illegal trade in Indonesia not only targeting large animals such as rhinoceros, tigers, elephants, eagles and other species that are known to be attached to the community. Even the dragonfly that during its existence is often disregarded, also did not escape from the target of international trade network. Exotic and rare dragonflies belonging to Indonesia move to other countries without being detected.
Magdalena Putri Nugrahani, researcher and observer of dragonflies from Indonesia Dragonfly Society (IDS), revealed that not a few insect collectors, including dragonflies, who visited Indonesia as tourists and then conducted a survey. Not infrequently they bring tissue samples and even eggs.
"We've had a lot of miscues. Many people come to Indonesia with tourist permission but they do some dragon research, "Magda told Mongabay last week.
According to him, the number of incidents sampled dragonflies brought out without permission because of the lack of government and community attention to the existence of the dragonfly itself. Although Indonesia has a very high diversity of dragonflies, which is 15% of the total of about 5680 species worldwide, but the knowledge of dragonflies in Indonesia is still very less. The majority of publications on dragonflies are written by foreign researchers.
This condition is contrary to what happens in European countries, America and even Afika. The knowledge of the dragonflies there is captured very well, as do the birds. In fact, the collectors in Europe have many who have a terrarium to breed the types of dragonflies from different parts of the world.
The uniqueness of Dragonflies
Dragonflies are insects that start their life cycle in the waters. After mating, the female dragonflies lay their eggs on twigs or leaves in the water. After one to two weeks, the eggs hatch into a dragonfly or so-called nympha
This nympha will spend all its time in the water, and hunt to get its prey. These nymphas include a ferocious carnivore, even some large species, recorded to be able to hunt and prey on tadpoles and children of fish. In fact, nympha is also a cannibal that does not hesitate to eat same-sex. Nympha takes a varied time to morpheme into an adult dragonfly, depending on the species. There are only a few months and some even up to four years.