This is the second time Forsinard Flows has taken part in National Insect week. The national event is organised every two years by the Royal Entomological Society and aims to interest people of all ages in insect science, natural history and conservation.
http://nationalinsectweek.co.uk/
We are lucky here at Forsinard Flows to see a diverse range of insect species (not just midges!) and so this is a perfect event for us to get involved in. As National Insect Week ran from the 23rd to the 29th of June it fitted in nicely with some of our dragonfly and damselfly species emerging. So we decided to run an event called “Discovering Bog Dragons”.
Dragonflies and Damselflies are some of the oldest insects, fossil records show the ancestors of today’s dragonflies flying over 300 million years ago! Both dragonflies and damselflies are part of the insect family known as odonata, which means “toothed jaw”. They are named this because they have serrated mouthparts- hence “Dragonflies”. Damselflies are from the sub-order Zygoptera and are usually small, with large eyes that never touch and hold their equally sized wings along the length of their abdomen when at rest. Dragonflies are usually larger and more robust, their eyes are very large and usually touch at at least one point. The hind pair of wings are usually smaller than the fore set and at rest they are held out from the body.
Both dragonflies and damselflies have many interesting adapted features that allow them to be efficient hunters. Large compound eyes allow them to see to the left, to the right, infront of them and behind at all times. 2 pairs of large, well muscled wings that can move independently from each other allow them to fly backwards, forwards, up, down and even to hover. This means makes them extremely agile and manoeuvrable and allows them to fly very quickly, some species at up to 30mph. The legs of the dragonfly and damselfly are covered in bristles, which they use to grasp prey. Although they have six legs (Insecta) they cannot use these legs to walk, only to grasp plants when landed or prey, they are just too heavy!
Although when thinking of dragonflies and damselflies you picture the brightly coloured winged adult darting across the surface of a pool, hunting for other insects, this is in fact only a very small portion of their lifecycle. At this time of year the adults can be seen mating and laying eggs in pools. The eggs are laid on the water surface, after hatching the larva, also called nymphs, lives in the pool for most of the lifecycle. They are themselves predators, preying on unsuspecting water beetles, tadpoles and even newts! And will live for many weeks and even up to 5 years in some species, growing and moulting under the water. When the nymph has reached its final moult it will climb out of the water and grasp onto a piece of vegetation, it will then split its skin to release the winged adult.
Because the dragonfly and damselfly use water to lay their eggs in, the Flow Country is very suitable habitat. At this time of year, when the adults have emerged you can be lucky enough to see them right next to the visitor centre on our Dubh Lochan Trail. So this was the perfect location for “Discovering Bog Dragons”.
We are currently surveying the Dubh Lochan trail for Dragonflies and Damselflies. Any records are useful, so if you have dragonflies or damselflies near you the British Dragonfly Society would be very grateful for your sightings: http://www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/
On the day of the event we had a display area. This had information given to us by the British Dragonfly Society, which was a great help in organising the event, if you are interested in learning more they have a great website. We also had all the lovely freebies that National Insect Week had sent us. As well as some information on the Dragonflies and damselflies you can find here in Forsinard. It was a lovely sunny day (great for spotting!) so the “Discovering Bog Dragons” group went over to the Dubh Lochan trail to survey the pool system for Dragonflies and Damselfies and also to look into the pools for nymphs. It was a lovely afternoon, the highlights were seeing a four spotted chaser laying eggs in one of the pools and watching the extraordinarily brightly coloured common blue damselflies.
Our surveys so far this year have shown the following species:
Four spotted chaser Libellula quadrimaculata
Common Hawker Aeshna juncea
Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum
Large Red Damselfly Pyrrhosoma nymphula
Blue tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans
With hopefully more to follow! Different species emerge at different times of the year, so by the end of the summer this list should be longer! Watch this space!