There be dragons!

Anyone can be forgiven for focusing on the birds at this time of year with juveniles popping up all over the place and migrant waders returning through the country, but this time of year is probably the best time to look for Odonata!

What’s that?, I hear you screaming! Well, Odonata is the scientific order for our Dragonflies and Damselflies. These beautiful insects offer up a fantastic variety ranging from small red damselflies right up to large, black and yellow dragonflies that fly around catching bees!

Some species can be difficult to ID and you might need to look at habitat, food types and markings on their bodies but they offer an exciting challenge to anyone who can spot them. Watch out though, some dragonflies can get up to 30mph in flight and rarely settle and have round compound eyes giving almost 360 degree vision so they may fly away if they see you coming so binoculars are a must if spotting these fantastic creatures.

Middleton Lakes is a brilliant place to come and see this wonderful group with a wide variety of dragon and damselflies on show at the moment. So what is the difference?! As a rule of thumb, damselflies are smaller with a flutterier wing beat and lay their wings closed and parallel to their bodies at rest while the dragonflies are often larger, have a faster flight and wing beat and lay their wings open and perpendicular to their bodies at rest, simple!

Large Red Damselflies, like this female, are nearing the last month or 2 of their flight period but can be seen into September if you are lucky.

Dragonflies and Damselflies are fascinating creatures and go through an incredible life cycle. Odonata start their life as an egg that is laid by the adult. These are most often laid in slow moving water courses and the vegetative edges of ponds, lakes and sometimes, puddles. The process of egg laying is called over Overpositing, which is where the adult female swoops down to the water and bends its abdomen and tail round to lay the eggs in the water. It almost looks like they are bouncing off the water!

Eggs usually take around 2-5 weeks to hatch into larvae with air and water temperature among other critical factors key in determining the timescale. The larvae usually go through 1 winter in the larval stage, although some larger dragonflies can go through 3-5 winters before development into the adult. During this time, the larvae are ambush predators and lie in the vegetation waiting for things like water bugs, small fish and insect larvae to come past before they eat it. It is possible to work out the species as a larvae but they are very difficult to see, let alone ID.

This male Common Darter has rested on some Trefoil waiting for the sun to come out again so it can warm up and fly again.

Metamorphosis is the next process in their life cycle and once the correct temperatures have been achieved during Spring and Summer, the larvae begin to morph into the adults we see on the wing. During this process, that can last a few weeks, the larvae turn from gill breathing to air breathing creatures, at which point the larvae must get out of the water. Usually at this time the larvae will climb up a stem of vegetation or onto the bank and into cover and will stop above the water. They are extremely vulnerable to predators at this point including birds, frogs, fish and small mammals. The form then goes through an incredible transformation as, at this point, the adult is already encased in the larval casing. The adult then forces its way out of the casing, a process that can take several hours, it then stays clinging to the larval casing and warms up, pushing blood around its body, hardening its legs and body and blowing up its wings.

At this point the adults will fly off and look for food and a mate. The process for finding a mate is quite complex but it will result in a male and female mating, which is what you are witnessing if you see 2 dragon or damselflies flying around together attached. Once mating has taken place they must now find a place to lay the eggs, or ovipositor and the whole cycle starts again.

Banded Demoiselles can be seen in their hundreds along the canal and river at Middleton Lakes.

This is a very broad overview of the lifecycle of one of our most interesting and beautiful insects. They have a huge variation in species, behaviour and how long their life cycles and stages of development last so the best bit of advice is to get out there and see what you can find!

At the moment at Middleton Lakes, you can see Broad-bodied chasers, Black-tailed skimmers, Common darters, Red-eyed damselflies, Banded demoiselles and Emperor Dragonflies among many others. They can be seen on the canal, river and the main pools but a great place to start is the small pools that are dotted across the site including behind the screens and around the Southern edge of Fishers Mill. Don’t think you have to go miles to find them though, we had Emperor dragonflies hunting over the play meadow by the car park last week so you don’t have to go far to appreciate these often overlooked but stunning creatures!