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Dragonfly ID (1 Viewer)

herring99

Well-known member
Can anyone identify this dragonfly for me please? It crawled out of my garden pond two weeks ago and was still drying out when the picture was taken. The only dragonfly I have seen in the garden was an Emperor which was laying eggs in the pond the same week as this one emerged.
 

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herring99 said:
Can anyone identify this dragonfly for me please? It crawled out of my garden pond two weeks ago and was still drying out when the picture was taken. The only dragonfly I have seen in the garden was an Emperor which was laying eggs in the pond the same week as this one emerged.

Hello Herring99,
You don't give a size but I believe you have a very teneral Common Darter S. striolatum there.

Harry
 
harry eales said:
Hello Herring99,
You don't give a size but I believe you have a very teneral Common Darter S. striolatum there.

Harry
Thanks Harry. I could tell it was one of the smaller dragonflies, as for size I didn't really make a note. I also had to look up teneral on google to see what it meant!

I also have another question. The pond I have is quite small, 2 metres by 1 metre, how can it support two types of damselfly and possibly two types of dragonfly and that I have seen depositing eggs?
 
herring99 said:
Thanks Harry. I could tell it was one of the smaller dragonflies, as for size I didn't really make a note. I also had to look up teneral on google to see what it meant!

I also have another question. The pond I have is quite small, 2 metres by 1 metre, how can it support two types of damselfly and possibly two types of dragonfly and that I have seen depositing eggs?

Hello Herring99,

The size of the pond is immaterial as far as Dragonflies are concerned, provided there water present, they will lay. Not all Dragonflies emerge at the same time so each ovipositing species may be unaware that other species are occupying the same pool or pond.

A neighbour of mine has a pool no larger than yours, and it supports three Damselfly species, 2 Darter species and two Aeshna species at least, along with Newts and Frog tadpoles. In addition there is quite a lot of the smaller insect life forms present. This pond doesn't produce a large number of any Dragonfly species, but when ponds are overcrowded, dragonfly nymphs will tend to prey on smaller nymphs, thus reducing the total population of Dragonflies that reach maturity. The larger the pond, the more species are likely to occur.

If I had a pond, I wouldn't be complaining at all, as to how many species occupy it. Just enjoy it.

Harry
 
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