Broad Bodied Chaser
Libellula depressa
Damsel flies are readily told apart from Dragonflies by the way they hold their wings above their bodies when at rest, whereas Dragonflies spread their wings away from their bodies. Dragonflies also tend to be larger and more heavily built. Damselfly nymph are similarly lightly built, but otherwise have similar lifestyles to their Dragonly relatives. Damsel flies with coloured wings are known as Demoiselles.
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The millpond and dipping ponds are ideal places for damselflies and dragonflies. This is a Large Red Damselfly, Pyrrhosoma nymphula |
Here we have the Azure Blue damsel fly, Ischnura elegans (above, male and below, female)
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and here are a pair of Azure Blues laying eggs in the
small pond by the entrance to the Reserve |
and this is the husk of skin left behind after a dragonfly nymph has climbed out of the water and the adult emerged from the nymphal stage
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This is a damsel fly nymph:
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Beautiful Demoiselle (male) Photographed in Boldings Brook, June 2008 |
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... and these dragonflies are, top picture, male and lower picture, female Ruddy Darters (Sympetrum sanguineum). The adult dragonfly has quite a short lifespan, measured in days or a few weeks, whereas the nymph (see below) which lives underwater and is a voracious predator can live up to five years in some species before climbing up a convenient plant stem and emerging as an adult
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