Have you seen a tutubi (dragonfly) lately?
Dragonflies were once all over the place—even in cities. Schoolchildren would then spend time catching them during school breaks.
But they are becoming scarce now, and you would be lucky to see one around.
Dragonflies and damselflies belong to Order Odonata of flying insects.
They are predatory insects found almost anywhere near wetlands or where there is water—ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, even on farms or grassy fields. They spend their juvenile life in the water and their adult life in the air and on land.
Unlike bees, they are harmless—no stinger—fun and challenging to catch. Filipinos have fond memories of these amazing insects in their youth.
Dragonflies everywhere
Poems were even written dedicated to catching dragonflies. Among the famous was: “Tutubi, tutubi, ‘wag ka papahuli sa batang salbahe [Dragonfly, dragonfly, don’t let a bad child catch you].”
Of course many children were guilty of catching this insect.
Take it from environmentalist Gregg Yan, who grew up in the rice-rich province of Bulacan.
He remembers how, three decades ago, his hometown was abuzz with all sorts of insects, “including fleets of tiny dragonflies.’
“There were two main types, delicate [and tiny] ‘tutubing karayom.’ or damselflies, and the more robust ‘tutubing kalabaw,’ or dragonflies,” Yan shared via Messenger on January 12.
“Zooming around, the tiny green or blue airplanes-like creatures enlivened fields, especially during [dry season]. Kids of all ages would catch them by sneaking from behind to seize them by their tails. Most were released after a few minutes of close observation,” he said.
A BusinessMirror editor shared his childhood delight that even in Manila’s grassy areas near canals, children’s eyes would glow when they were able to catch a tutubi with a drop of toothpaste (sneaked from their house) that was placed on an end of a rubber band tied to a tingting (a piece of broomstick).
Important ecosystem function
More than their beauty and giving children the challenge of catching them, dragonflies play a very important role in the ecosystem.
They generally take a bite out of an area’s mosquito population—helping reduce dangerous vector-borne diseases like dengue, malaria and yellow fever, Yan said.
“However, the buzzing insects in turn are eaten by other animals like birds and bats, thus, helping keep the greater ecosystem stable,” he explained.
Vanishing species
But one could rarely see a dragonfly or damselfly these days. Where have these amazing creatures gone?
The reason could be the place is far from a wetland or aquatic ecosystem where they lay their eggs, play and hunt for food—other insects like flies, mosquitoes, bees, or anything they can catch with their legs.
Adult dragonflies have long and slender abdomen, two pairs of wings and three pairs of legs—perfect for hunting a prey.
These predatory insects fly faster than other insects. Because of their helicopter-like flight, they can hover above other insects, change the direction of their flight and catch their potential prey—whether they are above, below, in front or behind, or on both sides of them.
“When once ‘empty’ farms were eventually converted into subdivisions, when the continuous dumping of factory chemicals robbed local rivers of life, when [so much] pesticides were sprayed onto nearby ricefields—many fields would grew silent,” Yan explained.
Not to worry, he said the dragonflies are still around, but much farther away from the cities.
“Maybe one reason kids don’t go out as much now is because there’s much less for them to see. Some of the magic we experienced as kids during our time were simply gone. Perhaps if we take better care of the environment, our dragonflies would someday return,” Yan said.
Vanishing habitats
Asked for his expert assessment, entomologist Juancho B. Balatibat, told the BusinessMirror that the vanishing dragonflies and damselflies are an effect of what is happening to the environment.
“Let us look at the environment and life history of dragonflies Their immature [members] live in water. Dragonflies live in ponds, rice fields, or any stagnant water. Damselflies live in flowing water—rivers and streams,” he shared via phone interview on January 12.
What happened to these ecosystems have impacts on any living organisms that depend on them, including dragonflies and damselflies, said the associate professor at the University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Forestry and Natural Resources Department of Forest Biological Science,
“What happened to our habitat? Either they are dried up, or because of industrial development, the waters are buried in the soil. In farms, because of pesticides and other chemicals, their habitats are polluted,” said Balatibat, currently the deputy director and head of the Makiling Botanic Gardens (MBG).
“Because of pollution and destruction of their habitat, their numbers have gone down. That is why in biodiversity assessments, dragonflies or damselflies are among the bio-indicators of aquatic habitat quality.,” he explained.
“If there are few of them, then there is something wrong with the aquatic habitat. Possibly, because the water is polluted, so immature dragonflies or damselflies don’t survive,” he added.
Water pollution; non-existent food source
Also, water pollution kills these predatory insects’ preys.
“Without food, they [dragonflies] will not thrive,” he said.
“The presence of their prey contributes to what happens to them,” he said, recalling that when he was a young boy, he was “guilty” of catching one or two of these insects.
Even in the Makiling Botanic Garden, he noted that the population of the insects—the dragonflies and even butterflies—are decreasing.
“There are species of butterflies that are locally extinct because their larvae feed on particular leaves that no longer exist in the area. That’s why the butterflies or the adult of that larvae also became extinct,” he said.
Few studies; lack of funds
According to Balatibat, there are very few studies about dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies, and other insects, perhaps because of a lack of funds to support their studies.
Without funding for scientific studies, many researchers or scientists rely on logical explanation of what happened to these vanishing insects.
What is happening to these insects is not unique to the Philippines.
Regional trend?
Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim said based on the global listing, there are more than 1,680 known species of dragonflies and damselflies in Southeast Asia. Around 790 species of them are found in Indonesia. The Philippines lists around 300 species.
“More [Order] Odonata species are still being discovered, and a rare species unique to the island of Belitung in Indonesia was rediscovered by scientists in 2017 [Afaryisi, A.]. [However] currently, around 10 percent of the species found in Asean are considered threatened,” Lim explained.
According to Lim, most species are found in island ecosystems and are indicators of clean terrestrial and wetland areas. And the important role they play in the ecosystem cannot be overemphasized.
Biological control agents
“They prey on other insects and, therefore, help control the proliferation of insects harmful to humans and plants, such as mosquitoes and gnats. [They] would be good to have in your backyard,” she said.
According to Lim, dragonflies and damselflies can be easily ignored and their habitats can be affected by unabated development for human habitation, infrastructure, plantations, and mining.
She agreed that “more scientific surveys must be conducted to come up with good baseline information on our Odonata [species] in Southeast Asia so that we can better plan our development programs and projects.”
“Their continued presence in our economic development areas will indicate that we are indeed on our way toward a greener and bluer economy,” she said.
Image credits: Gregg Yan