Darters in Norfolk (1 Viewer)

Hi all

Couple of days ago I was in Syderstone Common and managed to get some half decent shots of what appear to be darters. This is my 1st "proper" attempt at ID on dragonflies, so any help much appreciated.

Photo #1: I gather (from the very helpful ID pointers thread) that this is a Ruddy Darter

Photo #2: this darter has a blue-ish colour to the underside of the abdomen - Common Darter?

Photo #3: This one I photographed near the darter in photo no. 1 - is this a Common Darter though? zooming right in it appears the pterostigma is more brownish than the reddish of the Ruddy Darter

Cheers
Marcell

I would have said that all of these were Ruddy Darters although I am not completely convinced by the third. A good place to start on Darter ID is with the legs (at least in the UK). As far as I can see, all of these have black legs with no yellow streaking (hard to see in the third photo). In the UK that leaves only Black and Ruddy Darter and these are clearly not Black Darter. The rich red colour of the male in the first photo and the slightly indistinct markings on the sides of the thorax tend to support this. In the third photo, these are hard to see but you can see the black markings on the final segments of the abdomen which would tend to suggest Ruddy over Common.

O

Thanks Odonate; the legs were indeed black (what I saw when I was getting closer for the photographing)

Is the club-tailed end of Ruddy Darter a reliable ID feature at all? It's quite obvious on the 1st photo but not at all on 2 & 3 (which I presume are females?)

It is, along with the top view where you can see that the abdomen is thinner near the thorax and clubbed towardss the tip. Lets say that it is a good general pointer to male Ruddy (females don't show this feature) but I would not rely on it as a single ID feature.

O

will keep that in mind - thanks