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Naturalist Corner   Dragonfly Diversity As Naturalist Karen Sheffield can tell you, Fairfax County is home to an abundance of dragonflies. Karen has been leading volunteers in a survey of Riverbend Park's dragonfly populations - only to discover that Riverbend is home to over 10% of North America's dragonfly diversity. The combination of natural communities, some of them very rare, at the Potomac Gorge helps create the perfect habitat for so many dragonflies. Come see the Cobra Cubtail in June or the Illinois River Chaser in July. Some neat Dragonfly facts: They may spend up to 5 years (although most spend a lot less) as larvae in a pool or spring before they crawl out to land and begin to fly. Some adults may only have 5 weeks above water in order to reproduce. Dragonflies are predators not pollinators. Dragonflies do not sting or bite people. Dragonfly fossils have been found that are very large in comparison to today's largest dragonfly (6 inches). Fossil dragonflies had wingspans of over two feet!