A familiar metamorphic critter is the dragonfly. Like the cicada, a dragonfly’s full life span may last several years, but very little of that life includes time as an adult.
In the steady crawl to metamorphosis the dragonfly’s life cycle encompasses three stages: the egg, the nymph, and the adult dragonfly. After mating, a female dragonfly lays her eggs in a lake, pond, or wetland. The eggs eventually hatch out as nymphs, and the nymphs themselves go through several stages (instars). The dragonfly lives out most of its life cycle as a nymph.