Dragonflies and damselflies

On Saturday we visited some ponds where Fred had not collected samples before. There were large numbers of insects visiting the ponds, including these damselflies.

Male Emerald Damselfly (Lestes sponsa)


Female Emerald Damselfly


Pair of Emerald Damselflies

Pair of Darters (probably Black Darters - Sympetrum danae)

Watch a video of two pairs of Darters laying eggs.

I also found this empty larva case (exuvia) of a Common Hawker (Aeshna juncea) - one of the larger dragonflies.

One of the dragonflies even settled on Fred's head!

Many thanks to Jeanne Robinson for help with identifications.

Further information:

British Dragonfly Society - includes photos of British species
and a useful pdf document on Dragonflies in your garden

Dragonfly emergence

Today I went to check on a site where I had previously discovered some interesting sundews - Drosera anglica and Drosera x obovata (the hybrid between D. anglica and the common D. rotundifolia) - see the Drosera pages on our website.

In the stream where most of them were growing, we saw a dragonfly which had just emerged. I noticed it because the wings were held together above the body rather than flat like an aeroplane as is normal.

In the picture below, the discarded nymph skin can be seen to the left of the adult dragonfly.

Dragonfly nymphs are aquatic, and this stage in the life cycle may take several years, while the adult lives for a few months at most.

This dragonfly is a male Common Hawker, though the colouring is very different from that of a mature adult. Thanks to Jeanne Robinson of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum for the identification.

Damselflies

On 2nd August, while visiting a local country park, I spotted this pair of mating damselflies.

It reminded me that, on a visit in May, I had seen a less fortunate damselfly which had been caught by a spider.