Dragonfly ID Pointers (1 Viewer)

[stevo]

This is a brilliant thread,please keep the photo`s & ID pointers coming as a newcomer like me is finding some Odonata`s bewildering!!!!

Cheers Steve.

 

[Ashton.P]

Another picture showing parts of Dragonflies.

 

[puffinboy]

Migrant & Southern Hawker Compared

Further to previous posts - here is a direct comparison of a Migrant Hawker (left) and a Southern Hawker (right)

Migrants are a little smaller and appear gray/blue at a distance and note the almost non-existant antehumeral stripes - also often seen in large numbers

Southerns are more robust and are more green/blue at a distance with the green broad antehumeral stripes very visible

Took the Migrant Hawker photo today after having several frustrating previous outings waiting for them to land

On this occasion not only did one land right in front of me but then another joined it...!!

Cheers Tom, East Sussex, UK

 

[gmorgan]

Well done for an excellent thread, there are also some very good photos of all the British dragonflies at www.dragonflysoc.org.uk click on UK Species to find the pictures. Geoff

 

[Adey Baker]

Immature male Darters can look very similar in colour to females.

Below shows the difference in 'Anal appendages', in this case, of Common Darters, between the two sexes which should help

 

[Adey Baker]

Here's a very mature female Common Darter showing some red colouring on the abdomen - the wings can also be coloured slightly but the leaf in the background is masking that somewhat!

 

[Hauer]

Hi - Just thought I would share some info with you too..... I placed a forum article some time ago on Steve's DigiCams website regarding my personal experience with reverse lens photography. I thought, I would share as much info as possible from my side as there appears to be much interest in respect of this technique and experienced first-hand that it is not always easy to obtain all required components.

Here is the link: http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=59210&forum_id=50

Do note that the various pictures are not displayed unless you login / register. The website links that I have mentioned offer besides inspiration, a vast amount of info on techniques in respect of insect photography.

Hope its of use. Thanks to you all for sharing the above wonderful info / photos!

Cheers - Herman Auer

 

[Surreybirder]

Further to previous posts - here is a direct comparison of a Migrant Hawker (left) and a Southern Hawker (right)

Migrants are a little smaller and appear gray/blue at a distance and note the almost non-existant antehumeral stripes - also often seen in large numbers

Southerns are more robust and are more green/blue at a distance with the green broad antehumeral stripes very visible

Took the Migrant Hawker photo today after having several frustrating previous outings waiting for them to land

On this occasion not only did one land right in front of me but then another joined it...!!

Cheers Tom, East Sussex, UK

Has anyone got a pic of Common hawker to show the long thin antehumeral stripes? I've never seen the species locally but Southern and Migrant are both common.
Ken

 

[Ashton.P]

Hi Ken,

Photo attached showing the thin antehumeral stripes and yellow costa (edge of wing) of a male Common Hawker, also second picture of female showing minimal antehumeral but still obvious yellow costa.

Regards,
Paul.
East Riding Dragonflies

 

[psilo]

As Adey was kind enough to give me a positive id I thought that I would add my black darter (Sympetrum danae) photos here. These are quite a bit smaller than the common darter and when they fly they have the most beautiful blue wings. Being very dark though I found them very difficult to photograph. The literature says that they are common and widespread on lowlands and heaths and that it is rare on uplands. However these were found on a pond up on the moors which are quite high indeed.

 

[harry eales]

As Adey was kind enough to give me a positive id I thought that I would add my black darter (Sympetrum danae) photos here. These are quite a bit smaller than the common darter and when they fly they have the most beautiful blue wings. Being very dark though I found them very difficult to photograph. The literature says that they are common and widespread on lowlands and heaths and that it is rare on uplands. However these were found on a pond up on the moors which are quite high indeed.

Hello psilo,
I'm afraid the literature about Black Darter being an acidic pool loving species in either upland or lowland heaths is now quite incorrect.

It may have been true some ten years ago, but in the Northern counties of England it has expanded out of it's predominantly acidic water upland habitat and can now even be found in coastal low lying ponds many miles from any bogs or mire. It has even turned up as a breeding species in ponds on Magnesium Limestone which is about as none-acidic as you can get.

Harry

 

[Surreybirder]

The male demoiselles are easy to tell apart (I'm talking in a UK context here) but the females are not always easy in isolation. The female beautiful has a 'dipped in tea' look. I'll try and show the differences:

 

[BugMan]

Immature or Female Blue Coporal

This is the coloring of a Blue Corporal Dragonfly immature male or female. Since it was found around May it may likely be a male. The adults are .. well "blue" *wink*

 

[HarassedDad]

Well I googled Blue Corporal and found this amazing site

http://public.fotki.com/gstrick3
What a brilliant resource.

 

[Sue Wright]

What a brilliant thread! I was delighted to see so much about them all as I find them all a little complicating to ID at times, to say the least, even with a good book.

I even put a Large Red Damsel (wrongly now I know) on the Butterfly & Moths thread on Friday.

This is all making for fascinating learning. Thank you all.

Sue

 

[digitalbirdy]

Chaser or Skimmer !

This Dragonfly I photographed yesterday in Devon (UK), has Brown eyes but a blue back - so which is it, a Chaser or a Skimmer.

Please excuse me posting it in this thread, but as the photo came out quite well, I thought it could be useful for others regarding ID.

Adrian

 

[Ashton.P]

Adrian,

Immature male Broad-bodied Chaser.

Paul.

 

[Adey Baker]

Blue-tailed Damselflies are very common over much of the UK (only really confusable with Scarce Blue-tail - which I don't have any photos of for comparison!) but they come in a bewildering variety of colours.

Hopefully, I've got all the commonest forms labelled correctly below:

Pic 1: Males, immature on the left showing the bright green colour of the abdomen which turns through a blue/green turquoise colour into the blue male. Note the two-toned pterostigma.

Females are more variable, either called just A, B and C-types or various scientific names.

Pic 2: is a near-adult 'andromorph'-type female with colouring similar to the male with the inset showing the differences between the male and female appendages.

Pic 3: shows the two regular colours of immature females, the more or less self-explanatory violacea purple-coloured on the left and the pinkish rufescens on the right. Both show the whitish pterostigma and blue segment 8.

Pic 4: shows adult females which have now lost the blue 'tail' - the greenish form of infuscans on the left and rufescens-obsoleta on the right which, together with its immature rufescens form lacks the black line on the thorax.

Anybody got any Scarce Blue-tail photos to put on here?

 

[Stranger]

This is a brilliant thread,please keep the photo`s & ID pointers coming as a newcomer like me is finding some Odonata`s bewildering!!!!

Cheers Steve.

I`ll second that, (both the brilliant and the bewildering).

 

[brianfm]

Brilliant stuff. I am a newcomer to all of this, but I am going to work through the thread slowly. Hope it keeps going.