I finally returned to teaching dragonfly courses yesterday which was a joy! Not only did the sun come out, but at Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre, Craven Arms we were treated to a first sighting of Small Red-eyed Damselfly. Geoff Hall (left and below left) and Suzanne Thomas (below right) kindly photographed the distant damselflies and their pictures illustrate how much smaller and daintier in appearance this damselfly is to the ‘standard’ Red-eyed Damselfly. You can see the wings are shorter relative to the body length and the blue pigment clearly creeps down the sides of segments 2,3 and 8 of the abdomen. The individuals we saw all had a tendency to tilt the ends of their abdomens upwards.
This species was first recorded in Shropshire in 2019 and this is the 6th location in our county where they have been seen. Shortly after the course 2 of the participants, Paul Roughley & Sandy Scott, visited Stokesay Castle where this species was first recorded. Amazingly it was there too as their photo (far below left) shows – so it looks like they’re here to stay!
