I had thought there would be a flurry of activity over this weekend but I think the cooler temperatures have really held things back a little and I still have no dragonflies emerging from my pond, just a few damselflies.
At Whixall Moss Stephen Barlow reports seeing his first fully mature White-faced Darters and has sent in this lovely photo of a male. He also sent in a mature Azure Damselfly (below left) illustrating the U shape on the second abdominal segment, the black ‘bow-tie’ at the end of the abdomen and the black ‘snooker cue’ on the side of the thorax. The Variable Damselfly is much less frequently recorded possibly as people assume it’s an Azure Damselfly. If the U shape has a stalk or the antehumeral (shoulder stripes) look like exclamation marks take a photo and please get in touch.
