I shall return to my Scottish wildlife encounters soon,
but meanwhile here is a post about Wales.
It was a warm grey afternoon at WWT Llanelli.
The sun made a few welcome appearances,
and we saw a range of Lepidoptera,
including this Chaser.
but meanwhile here is a post about Wales.
It was a warm grey afternoon at WWT Llanelli.
The sun made a few welcome appearances,
and we saw a range of Lepidoptera,
including this Chaser.
[2]
The photographs above and below [detail and whole dragonfly]
are, I believe, male and female of the same species,
since they seemed to be a pair.
I think they may be Common Darters;
and if so, the top one is the female.
[3]
We also saw these ones:
[4]
Notice the wings in the shot above.
[6]This Dragonfly was less green and more red.
It may be an immature male Common Darter [Sympetrum striolatum]
It's hard to tell whether there is a yellow stripe along the legs,
but the wing tips are marked with a rusty pterostigma [wing cell or spot].
The yellow stripe was visible in the photo below,
when I viewed it at 80%.
[7]
Click to enlarge!
My guess is that this is a male
Southern Hawker,
though it may well be a Common Hawker.
The colour is pale turquoise blue,
despite the fact that it looks a bit green here.
∆
N.B. I have tried to give each Dragonfly a number e.g. [1],
regardless of species.
[4] and [5] may be the same creature...
My thanks to David Gill for taking these photographs for me:
my dominant arm is still sling-bound!
Meanwhile, you might enjoy these:
- Earlier [Coastcard] post on Dragonflies
- Earlier [Coastcard] post on Damselflies
- Dragonfly nymph
- Dinefwr Damselflies
Resource:
- Guide to Dragonflies and Damselflies of Britain by Steve Brooks, illustrated by Richard Askew (Natural History Museum Publication)
- Professor P. Brain's blog
- Dragonfly Days [South Wales, UK] - with an excellent Dragonfly Anatomy diagram
- The July-September 2010 edition of Waterlife [WWT] has excellent features on Dragonflies [p.30, p.41 and p.48]
2 comments:
he's right handsome. have a great night.
These dragonfly photos are amazing and so clear. We have installed a larger garden pond this year - though it is still relatively small - and I would love to have a visit from one of these magnificent insects. I live in hope! Do hope your arm is making a good recovery.
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