damsels

Flitting round the garden at the moment are lots of Azure Damselflies, Coenagrion puella, in bright blue and iridescent green - around the ponds they are in a mating frenzy.  

(Damselflies are often mistaken for dragonflies but they are simple to tell apart, damselflies are smaller and when at rest fold their wings vertically - dragonfly wings are held stiffly horizontal)  

They begin their lives in the ponds as wingless aquatic nymphs, ugly little monsters with ferocious extendable jaws, they hunt small water creatures in the depths.  After a year hunting and growing the nymph matures in early summer, it climbs up a plant stem out of the water, the skin splits along the back and out emerges the winged flying adult.  The males are bright blue and the females green with an iridescent sheen.  The adults feed on small flying insects like mosquitoes.  To pair the male grips hold of the female's neck using a special clasper at the tip of his abdomen to hang on.  To mate the female bends her abdomen under and up to the males body.

 photo: Bohringer Freidrich         

After mating the pair fly together in tandem from floating leaf to floating leaf and the female uses her flexible abdomen to reach under the leaves to lay individual eggs.  In their pond the goldfish follow them eagerly, splashing about as they devour the freshly laid eggs.   

The males appear to stand stiffly 'on guard' while the female is busy laying down below and when approached too closely will drag the female into the air for a quick getaway.  I am disappointed in my 'up periscope' observations as I read the male hangs on simply to prevent other males mating with the female.

There are unidentified red damsels in the garden too.  They are proving far too quick for me and after working up a sweat chasing them about in the heat will be sitting in the shade till the weather cools.  We will all just have to imagine what they could be for the time being.

here be dragons

Today while remonstrating quietly with myself about the plant spacings in the new beds  (its crowded in there) a bit of sparkle coming from the wheelbarrow cabbage flowers caught my eye.  Hanging from the flower stem like some strange fruit was a large dragonfly in complementary tones of gold, yellow and brown with light reflecting off its transparent wings.  These large and distinctive insects are strong flyers and can easily travel long distances so it is not unusual to see them in the garden but it is rare to get such a close look at one, they are wary and alert with lightening fast reactions and have the ability to fly forwards, backwards and any which way so despite my running willy-nilly I am usually unable to get close enough to identify them.

This one was easily identified by its distinctive wide abdomen as a female Broad-bodied Chaser, Libellula depressa, (the males are blue), probably newly emerged from the pond and resting after her maiden flight.  I have seen these in the garden each year since the wildlife pond was completed a few years ago and think they probably established from larvae introduced with the pond plants but they are known to be colonisers of new ponds and may have arrived of their own accord.  I am looking forward to watching its darting flight as it hunts round the garden for flying insects (do I just imagine the clatter of those cellophane wings?) and I fully expect to crick my neck jerking my head this way and that trying to keep it in view.  I did this before and doubt I've learnt my lesson yet.