Karamea is blessed with a great many fresh waterways which are the first home of our Damselflies.  A female damselfly will lay her eggs in or near water, when they hatch they are little wingless larvae or nymphs.  The nymphs live in the waterways, ponds, bogs or swamps, crawling around, preying on other small insects such as water fleas and mosquito larvae, they are known to be quite fierce predators at this level.   Some species can live in this stage, gradually increasing in size through multiple moults (shedding their exoskeleton) for a few months and some take a few years. At the final stage of growth when they emerge out of the water or dampness their wings will be open up.  In this form, probably the most familiar to us, they spend the shortest part of their life, just a few weeks to a few months.  As adults they are still predatory and will prey on small bugs and moths and other flying insects also.  New Zealand seems to have just 4 native species, although there seem to be many variations.