"I caught a giant petaltail! I tamed the beast!" —Animal Crossing: City Folk

Giant Petaltail

Scientific Name

Petalura ingentissima

Family

Petaluridae - the ancient petaltails

Time of Year

August to October

Time of Day

4am to 7am; 4pm to 7pm

Location

Flying

Size

160 mm

Catch Size ^(NL)

N/A

Rarity

Rare (Very rare in morning)

Selling Price

8,000 Bells

Appearance

Animal Crossing: City Folk,
Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Regional Names

(テイオウムカシヤンマ)

The Giant Petaltail is a dragonfly found in August through October in the evening. It is considered a rare insect, and sells for 8,000 bells. It is dark in color, and is easily identified due to its immense size and swift flying ability, making it difficult to catch. It also can fly over cliffs, unlike other bugs. It has the largest picture of all bugs and fish in the encyclopedia.

Cutting down trees increases its abundance, as other common species will not appear without the trees. However, replacing trees is time-consuming.

Donating to the MuseumEdit

In City FolkEdit

When donated to the museum, Blathers the curator says the following;

"Hootie hoo! It's like looking at a living ancestor of today's dragonflies! A vile ancestor... It's so big that when I tell people I spotted one, no one wants to believe me. Folks claim I'm being daft. It's understandable, wot? When I look at this thing, I think I might very well BE hallucinating..."

The giant petaltail can be found on the third tier of the insect section of the museum, at the top of the ramp, with the lantern fly, fruit beetle, and scarab beetle, to name a few. During the evening hours, it can be found sitting on the sign in that section of the museum.

Bug Encyclopedia InformationEdit

In Wild World and City Folk, players can access information about fish and insects in the menu. Regarding the giant petaltail -

City FolkEdit

''The biggest dragonfly in the world, these primitive insects are living fossils." Size- About 160mm Habitat- Dusk Season- Fall

Further InformationEdit

With a wingspan of 160mm, this giant dragonfly is tied with the Hawaiian Giant Darner (Anax strenuus) for the title of the largest dragonfly in the world. Due to lack of measurements and data, it is impossible to know the truth. Of further interest, the largest "Odonate" (Member of the dragonfly family) is somewhat ironically actually a damselfly (an insect normally known as a minituare version of a dragonfly) from Costa Rica named Megaloprepus coreulatus.

Giant Petaltails exist in North-eastern Australia in the state known as Queensland.