Obligingly, the pair below were joined in their copulation wheel for some minutes ...
While I was photographing a male Emerald damselfly I noticed a dragonfly larvae on an adjacent rush. It was perfectly still and it was only when I viewed an enlarged image on my camera screen that I realised it was an empty shell, its back split at the point where the adult had emerged. As identification is notoriously difficult, it is probably best not to speculate on which dragonfly larvae this is; none-the-less it was interesting to observe. If the picture points a reader in any particular direction regarding identification I would be pleased to hear from you.
(Thanks to ST for his suggestion that the exuvia is that of a Common Darter. My field guide suggested this also but I felt unable to comfirm.)
4 comments:
That is probably the best tactic with Dragonflies Emma.
Hi Emma,
your exuvia is most likley a Common Darter, because the Common's have emerged only recently. Although in writing this there isn't much difference in a Ruddy. Nice find been looking for ages.
Try this book in the wild guides series BRITIAN'S DRAGONFLIES by Dave Smallshire / Andy Swash.
ISBN 1-903657-04-0.
It has a small section on the exuvia.( where my guess has come from)
Oh and if you return to bank's p in the near future. Try the trees along the road side the were alive with commons, the last time i was there.
Thanks to ST and Roy for their comments and to ST for his id of the nymph.
That's a cracking shot of the exuvia Emma. Something I've never seen before.
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