Damselfly emerging! (1 Viewer)

Surreybirder · Jun 1, 2003

Very nice shot, Steve.
I see that the scientific name is
Enallagma carunculatum. Although it looks similar in colour to azure damselfly it is a member of the same genus as our common blue damselfly, E cyathigerum. The genus as a whole is poorly represented in the Western Palearctic. The only other member being E deserti (sometimes called the desert blue damselfly--and, not surprisingly, not found in the UK).

I've never tried netting an odo. I have handled a couple I've tried to rescue but don't have the nerve to wield a net in public places (and all the ponds round where I live are very public)!
Ken

Richard Ford · Jun 1, 2003

Hi All

Well I stopped in a t the same pond early yesterday, in the hope of finding exuvia still active for a shot. I must admit I didn’t find any active ones but probably up to 30 similar to the one I photographed before, but not any smaller ones. I was there around 6:30am I am guessing the species conserved was emerging overnight or literally at Dawn. I visited this pond at Midday and the most evident larger species was the Black Tailed skimmer so I assume at least some of the exuvia were of this species, my book states that these emerge in the early morning, so I guess the alarm should have been set for a couple of hours earlier. Also at this pond were Large Reds, one Emperor and plenty of different Blue damselflies, that wouldn’t stay put. But I think I now have my shot of Azures, could someone confirm the id.

All the best

Rich

Surreybirder · Jun 1, 2003

Look like azures to me! Steve?

Richard Ford · Jun 1, 2003

Hi sorry for all the photo but Azure is a new species for me.
I think this is one too, it shows the wine glass yes?
BTW i have another exuvia shot here.
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php?photo=5745&password=&sort=1&cat=514&page=1

Surreybirder · Jun 1, 2003

Azure again!!
There seem to be more blue-taileds about today, despite thundery conditions in E. Surrey.
Ken

Karl J · Jun 1, 2003

An interesting thread this one. Spent quite a while doing not much yesterday except watching a dyke at the local reserve. Hot sunshine, blue sky all day. Was really interesting watching the different behaviours of various species - which all tied very neatly to what the book said.

4 Spot Chaser which shoot around at speed, sometimes drifting into a glide or hovering and often returning to perch on the same stem.

the Hairy dragonfly seemed to have a much more methodical flight - searching around plant stems carefully. Looked as if they land among the meadow grass more readily than the 4-Spot.

And then the Large Red and the Blue damselflies ( didn't id exactly which species of Blue), I couldn't really make out much of a plan to their flight. Sort of just flew about and landed every now and again, often flying just above the surface of the water, or even landing on floating algae. Saw one oviposting which was a first. They seemed to cover much less area than the larger dragonflies as well.

Banded Demoselle, they seemed to be in a different area totally, among green reed shoots as opposed to along a dyke, although I didn't see too many of these to form any real notes.

Haven't seen any exuva at all but I'll keep on looking and I haven't got any photo's at all - but from what I see above they do make excellent subjects to photograph.

Forcreeks : A turquoise blue raincoat ..... intriguing

Watching this thread with interest ......

Forcreeks · Jun 2, 2003

Good thread indeed. We don't have the Azures, nor I a field guide for them. Notice on the fabulous photo by Rich, the male's wings are spread.. but not on Redwing's shot of non-copulating male. Rich's looks similar to our NW U.S. California Spreadwing in that detail. Was it a coincidental winging moment, or a regular habit? That hourglass mark detail is really cool. I love good i.d. markings, because so many DON'T have it, and we struggle with the i.d.'s. -Steve

steve covey · Jun 2, 2003

Mimicry in action!

Managed to escape the house yesterday. Visited Homefield Wood BBOWT Reserve to do some orchid 'twitching' [Military, Fly and White Helleborine]. While looking at some Fly Orchids a dragonfly flew into the clearing, made a few passes, then dive-bombed and landed on a Fly Orchid - it had obviously been fooled!
It turned out to be an immature male Emperor [Anax imperator] which then decided to rest on the plant and continue its maturation giving all of us present many photo opportunities.
Attached is my best effort [I must add that it's my first attempt at Odo photography with my new digicamcorder using the mem. card stills facility so apologies for the quality]

steve covey · Jun 2, 2003

Huh! what happened to the image. I browsed in file attachment and selected the pic I wanted. Is there another stage after this?What have I done wrong?

Richard Ford · Jun 2, 2003

Hi Steve

You have to click 'post reply’ then in the 'Attach file' section browse to your image, select it and ‘submit reply’ provided the file is not to large (1024000 bytes ) and is a gif jpg png txt zip bmp or jpeg then it should be fine.

Rich

steve covey · Jun 2, 2003

Hopefully image attached this time![It was too big before - doh!]

Surreybirder · Jun 2, 2003

Nice emperor, Steve. Good to see the digicam is earning its keep!
I tried to get a shot of an adult male emperor the other day--film now at printer's--but I wasn't really close enough :-(

Richard Ford · Jun 2, 2003

I managed an Emperor shot last year though I think it was old as it was a bit tatty, perhaps why it stayed still long enough for a photo. It’s in the gallery, and on my site. I saw one the other day and it wasn’t staying still for anyone. For some reason I have the red x’s at the moment on all images avitars etc, so I have not seen your emperor shot, Steve. I must admit I am not very familiar with flowers you mention but I find your story fascinating.

Isn’t it amazing that, at least from my point of view, the burst of hot weather has kick started the Dragonfly season, in a matter of days. My observations at a few sites have gone from a blue tailed Damsel in a week, to 10+ species and hundreds of individuals in a few days.

As I have just posted on UK dragonflies I now have photos of two of the different female variations in Blue tailed Damselfly, at least I am fairly sure I do.!
http://members.lycos.co.uk/digitalwildlife/odonata/bluetailed.htm

Rich

steve covey · Jun 2, 2003

redwing said:
As I have just posted on UK dragonflies I now have photos of two of the different female variations in Blue tailed Damselfly, at least I am fairly sure I do.!

Yes Rich, I've seen them both and they _are_ rufescens and violacea.
There are 3 other female forms: infuscans [a green form] rufescens-obsoleta [green thorax and rufous 'tail']
and the andromorph or male 'look-a-like'.
Don't worry not all species are as confusing as this - honest
Cheers,

Steve.

Forcreeks · Jun 4, 2003

As soon as I saw Steve's Emperor photo I thought Common Green Darner, our only Anax member here in the West, and sure enough after a quick look in the book Anax it is. The central dorsal stripe all the way down the abdomen was the tell-tale. Nice to see the UK cousin. Steve B

Surreybirder · Jun 6, 2003

exuvia

It's nice to know that our garden pond is a breeding ground for odos. Here's a pic of one but I'm afraid I've no idea which damselfly it is. My guess would be azure because they seem to be common at the moment.

Surreybirder · Jun 7, 2003

This damselfly was in our garden. I think it's a blue-tailed of the form infuscans. Anyone have any views? Sorry the pic's not too great. The 8th segment of the abdomen was brownish, slightly paler than the other segments. It was quite active even though it's a cool day.

PS Since writing the above, I've seen her ovipositing alone, which adds weight to the blue-tailed theory.

steve covey · Jun 7, 2003

Hi Ken,
I think it may be a female Azure Damselfly [thicker thoracic stripe and no obvious 'tail' colouration] but would need a good dorsal view to be sure.
Cheers,

Steve.

Surreybirder · Jun 8, 2003

thanks, Steve. I took some shots of the female damsel with my wife's SLR camera, so I'll see if the results are better.... when I finally get the film back.

Yesterday I saw my first common blue and white-legged damsels of the season. The latter were in a small, Iris choked stream near Oxted. They've certainly expanded their range as they are not shown at all in NE Surrey in Dragonflies of Surrey

Today, the Surrey Wildlife Trust had an open day at Godstone, Bay Pond nature reserve, so I took my daughter along for some pond-dipping. She loved it!

We caught a few damselfly larvae but others caught some fearsome-looking dragonfly larvae. I thought I'd post a couple on here to see if people agree with the identification made by the SWT woman.

First: brown hawker

Surreybirder · Jun 8, 2003

Second, Emperor dragonfly (it was quite green-looking in life).

Damselfly emerging! (1 Viewer)

Ken Noble

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If you want to see something new in nature!

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