Dragonflies (2): WWT Llanelli

[1]

A male Broad-Bodied Chaser

Libellula depressa

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.

Detail of intricate wing structure

[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]

The ‘threads’ here indicate a dragonfly recently emerged from the aquatic nymph phase.

[5]

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!

[8]

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]