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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RoyW" data-source="post: 1355199" data-attributes="member: 71737">As promised a few photos are attached below (in case anyone is interested in this thread!).The first two are of an old Common Darter with uniform brown sides to the thorax. Individuals like this are not particularly unusual - especially in late autumn - although most show at least a hint of the broad yellow stripes typically associated with Common D. Old individuals have a tendancy to also develop yellow or brown colouration in the wings, or just look 'tatty' due to age - sometimes the legs also seem to have darkened, which makes the yellow stripe on the leg harder to see!The second two photos show Ruddy D's, one of which is a maturing male - remember that the immature males start their adult life bright yellow and take time to develop the red 'mature' colouration. This means that for a time they can be the orangy-red colour associated with Common D, while at the same time shwoing obvious patches of yellow on the side of the thorax (this is unlikely to form two obvious stripes, as in Common D - but you never know...).As has previously been mentioned, the 'pinched' abdomen is very subjective. Many Common D's have a 'slightly waisted' look at some angles, which I think is the case in Steve Waites original photos - unless the pinched abdomen is very pronounced I wouldn't rely too much on this feature on its own either!One final point - the black 'moustaches' at the side of the frons are useful in seperating Common and Ruddy D's - but in an example like Steve Waites (and my own Common D) I would consider this feature to be more of an indication of Vagrant D...[ATTACH]172174[/ATTACH][ATTACH]172176[/ATTACH][ATTACH]172177[/ATTACH][ATTACH]172178[/ATTACH]Regards,Roy.PS. I hope I haven't put anyone off Dragonflies - only a few individual darters fall into the difficult to identify range - and if they were too easy they wouldn't be as interesting now would they!</blockquote>

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