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Brown Hawker
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trr - rtr tr - rtr rr. . . |
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A four-spotted chaser, Libellula quadrimaculata, keeps returning to a perch on a water plant near me, then sallies off after a passing insect. It is probably also guarding a territory and on the look out for a female. |
This dragonfly, which was chasing blue damselflies, rattled as it went past me. |
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In TandemThis pair of 4-spots were mating, the male chasing the female, then clasping her as they flew around low over the water. 'In tandem' is the term for this aerial embrace. They separated and the female deposited her eggs, one by one, dipping her tail-end just beneath the surface of the water (not on vegetation). A drop or two of water fell from the tip of her abdomen as she moved on a foot or so then dipped her ovipositor in the water again to deposit the next egg. The male followed her around and they were soon in tandem again before the female separated and resumed egg-laying. |
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The
black-tailed skimmer, Orthetrum cancellatum,
has a completely different flight pattern to the 'rest-and-chase' of the
four-spotted chaser; it zips around just above the surface of the water.
King of the pond, our largest dragonfly, is another hawker, the Emperor Dragonfly, Anax imperator. I might have difficulty picking out the precise colour of skimmer and chaser as they zip about but even I have no difficulty picking out the lapis lazuli abdomen of the Emperor as he hawks about over the pond (his thorax is in fact greenish, not as I've sketched it here, but the overall impression is turquoise-blue).
A
small skipper flutters over red clover, birdsfoot trefoil
and rather undernourished-looking meadow buttercup on the dry clay bank
beside me. There are large skippers around too, but they
have more dark marks on their wings than the predominantly orange small
skippers.
There's
a soft clatter and what appears to be a brown-winged fly, about the size
of a flesh fly, lands on my umbrella. It could be a micro-moth or the
adult of some aquatic insect that I'm not familiar with.
Dragonflies at West Bretton (includes video clip)
Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk
A
large brown aeshna, Aeshna grandis, hawks around
by the reeds while nearby common blue damselflies, Enallagma
cyathigera, and some even bluer azure damselflies,
Coneagrion puella, are flying about near the boardwalk,
some of the males clasping females as they dip to lay their eggs on water
plants.
