Odonata (5): Beautiful Demoiselles and other Damselflies, Llandeilo

The weather was unpromising, but we had a few patches here and there of watery sunshine. There were far fewer Damselflies about than on our previous visit, but this may have been due to the blustery conditions.

We recalled seeing a Beautiful Demoiselle on the nettles a year ago, and wondered whether one might appear. We did not have to wait long before a male caught our eye, with his iridescent wings  ...

Beautiful Demoiselle (male) Calopteryx virgo

I failed to catch a photo with the wings outstretched ...

Just as we were preparing to head back to the car, our eyes alighted on this magnificent, shiny creature ... a female Beautiful Demoiselle. She flitted between the Rhododendron and the fronds of bracken.
 

This male Blue-tailed Damselfly perched on some new woodwork.

The Stinging Nettles were alive with Green Nettle Weevils (Phyllobius viridiaeris).

The Cardinal Beetle preferred the Hawthorn. 

I found an interesting post about the Cardinal Beetle here; and although this one was seen in Wales, it is of the red-headed variety. 

• Previous Beautiful Demoiselle post (and bit on iridescence), showing that I saw my first one last year on 12 June 2010.
• You can see David's Demoiselle photos (May 2011) here (male, wings outstretched) and here (female), at his Swansea Bay View blog.

Eye-catching Insects (4): Hoverfly with stripes

Helophilus pendulus Hoverfly, I think

I came face to face with this tiger-like apparition, deep in the woods, along the boardwalk at Dinefwr on Monday afternoon. How amazing to have stripes going in two directions!

Henry Walloon ('Life on an Oxfordshire Lawn') has an informative post about insect mimicry, including those wasp-like stripes - here.


Best of the Rest ...

• An intriguing (but tragic) murder mystery out on the moors. What would Sherlock Holmes say?

Odonata (2): Damselflies - and other creatures - at Dinefwr

Large Red Damselfly, male

 

With shadow ...

Query female Common Blue

P.S. My thanks to Stuart who said...

Caroline: I just realised you have a query on your Common Blue Damsel. It looks like Azure Damsel to me (the first black mark on the abdomen is shaped like an underlined U. In Common Blue, it's an oval on a stalk.)

A bit of a jigsaw puzzle!

There were very few Dragonflies flying about, but we saw a couple flit through the trees.

I also saw the following creature, presumably depositing eggs as it she flew up and down numerous times within a small radius of weed. I would be glad to have an ID!

I assume the following is a nymph of some kind, but I don't know whether it is a Damselfly or some other creature ...

We also saw a few Orange Tip butterflies and a Red Admiral. A flash of crimson caught my attention as a Burnet Moth fluttered by the waterside. It was enjoying the warm sunshine, and was too quick for my camera!

• 2011 ~ early Damsels and Dragons

Seasonal Splash (6): Spring Sunshine at Dinefwr, Wales

We went on an expedition to try out the new boardwalk at Dinefwr ...

... We liked the wildlife motifs (several different ones) on the new benches.

The sun was shining, but these Scarlet Elf Cups reminded us that a long winter was not far behind us.

They were not the only species of fungi we encountered. This Bracket Fungus (Trametes versicolour)
was eye-catching.

Wrens were busy in the twiggy undergrowth by the water ...

... and I was delighted when I spotted this string of toad spawn.

I think this is a Common Quaker moth, Orthosia cerasi (thanks to Stuart's Donegal blog). 

The Nuthatch was flitting about in the trees.

This was my first Violet of the season, complete with ant!

Beautiful Birds (10): Red Kite

Red Kite

My thanks to David, who took this photograph in Carmarthenshire at the weekend. When we first moved to Wales eighteen years ago, Red Kites were a rarity. These days we occasionally see them flying over our home. They are fine birds, especially when the sun catches their bronze plumage. Like my favourite bird, the Puffin, Red Kites have 'Amber' conservation status.

Demoiselles (1): Black and Blue!

Beautiful Demoiselle on stinging nettles

I have been looking at Dragonflies and Damselflies.
Today the Demoiselle comes under my spotlight.

The photograph above was taken in Llandeilo, Wales, UK, on 12 June 2010.
I thought I had missed the creature altogether,
so although this photo isn't great,
it was a bonus.

I had already failed to photograph a different one,
flitting through the stinging nettles
at the edge of the Guardian Hay Festival site in May.

The Demoiselle in the photograph above was seen
at Dunster in Somerset back in July 2005,
in very close proximity to a large Slow Worm -
yet another creature to escape my lens.

I have blown it up to a ridiculous size below,
just for the colours.

The photo below
gives a reasonable overall impression of this exquisite
and iridescent species.

I think this creature above may be a male
Beautiful Demoiselle.

Demoiselles are in fact Damselflies.
We have two varieties in the UK:

the Beautiful Demioselle [Calopteryx virgo]

and

the Banded demoiselle [Calopteryx splendens],

which has less hairy legs!
The latter frequents slow-running waterways.

Demoiselles display colourful courtship rituals.
The Banded Demoiselle has deep blue areas on each wing,
and it is these that transmit signals to the female.

It is worth pausing to consider the matter of iridescence.
The play and quality of light at a given moment effects the colours registered by our eyes.
The 'Explore' section of the July-September 2010 WWT Waterlife magazine
has a helpful feature in its kids' zone on p.42,
explaining how the iridescence factor
effects the colours we associate
with that other iridescent icon,
the Kingfisher.

• Odonata under threat [April 2008]: The Daily Mail
• Banded Demoiselle on the BBC site
• Biological Records Centre: Demoiselle Fact File
• Demoiselles on binocularface
• Iridescence on physics.org

STOP PRESS

• Details of a Swansea University conference about the protein source from insects that could be exploited (and a new insect treatment for MRSA - not for the faint-hearted!)
  

Butterflies and Moths (1): Blue - and Speckled Wood

A member of the family Lycaenidae
at WWT Llanelli

You may enjoy Blue-Butterfly Day by Robert Frost, here.

Speckled Wood Butterfly
at Dinefwr

Dragonflies (1): Nymph

Discarded Dragonfly Nymph Case
on the Boardwalk at Dinefwr

Beautiful Birds (1): Fledgling

We watched this fledgling fly at Dinefwr.
The photograph was taken with a zoom lens, through the car window.
If anyone can identify the species, I would be very grateful.

Damselflies (1): Dinefwr Damsels

Large Red Damselfly | Pyrrhosoma nymphula at Dinefwr

Welcome to my blog of the 'Wild and Wonderful'.

I am hoping to post photographs of the wildlife I encounter.

I will try to date my photographs,
but if there is no date against a picture,
you may assume that the blog post was written
within a day or two of the sighting.

I am learning as I go along,
so please let me know if my identifications are wrong!

• Large Reds on the British Dragonfly Society site
• SkyWatch ...
  

Here