Last week I thought I’d found evidence that aliens existed. Walking round the gardens at The Lodge, at lunchtime, I came to a large pond where a number of people were gathered. They were peering at something at the water’s edge; some were taking pictures. Elbowing my way to the front, I saw something I’d never seen before. Clinging to a lily leaf was a bizarre, grey, alien-like creature. It was all legs, angles and edges, except for its round, bulging eyes. Next to it was a beautiful dragonfly, its silvery wings glinting in the light.
Of course it wasn’t an alien. Because, obviously, aliens wouldn’t choose a small Bedfordshire nature reserve to begin their invasion of Earth. It wasn’t even alive. It was in fact the discarded skin of a newly-emerged dragonfly.
The lifecycle of a dragonfly
A dragonfly begins its life inside a tiny egg. It then emerges as a wriggling larva which lives in the water, growing bigger each day. It can live up to two years like this, swimming about and feeding on pond snails, tadpoles and even small fish (dragonfly larvae are quite fierce, by pond standards). But usually after two or three months, on a particularly warm day, it will find a favourable plant to climb up and cling to and start to transform.
The larva of the dragonfly I saw – a southern hawker – will have climbed out under cover of darkness to avoid being snapped up by a hungry bird. Its legs, firmly gripping its chosen anchor-point, will have started to harden. Then its body will have started growing, so fast that it will finally burst out of its own back and emerge as a fresh, new version of itself, leaving its old skin – called an ‘exuvia’ – behind.
After such a dramatic experience, the fully-formed dragonfly has to rest a while. It also needs to dry out its brilliant new wings, which start off soft and wrinkled. After about an hour, its wings outstretched and shining, the dragonfly will be ready to soar up into the sky.
It was at this point that I arrived. The hawker looked pretty much ready to depart, and when I came back a while later, it had gone, leaving just the greyer, smaller version of itself behind, still fixed to its leaf, like a tangible ghost.
Here's how to attract dragonflies to your garden with even the smallest of ponds.
The Dragonfly Files
:: Dragonflies actually spend most of their lives underwater, living only a few days in the glorious sunshine before mating, laying eggs and ensuring the cycle begins again.
:: Can you see the thin, curly white strands coming from the exuvia? These are breathing tubes.
:: Snakes also shed their skin as they grow. And, of course, caterpillars take on a hardened pupae form before emerging as brilliant butterflies or moths.
Photo by Katie Fuller