Red-veined Darter
21st September 2009, MondayDuring the spring and early summer several small pools at Castle Water featured on many posts showing what species of dragonfly were emerging. Only one pool has any water at the moment so it was sampled for dragonfly larvae today, many Emperor larvae were found at various stages of development but three final instar Red-veined Darter larvae was a great find. This is a migrant species and regular breeding in Britain has only started recently, it has bred on the reserve before with exuviae being collected from one of the pools on Harbour Farm. It is likely that these larvae are the progeny of migrants that arrived in the UK during early summer when an influx of Red-viened Darter were recorded from various locations in the country. The selection of pictures below show some id features which help seperate Red-veined from Common and Ruddy Darter which could also be present in the pool.
This picture shows the two dark stripes on the abdomen and the residual lateral spines on segments 8 and 9 of the abdomen.
Lack of dorsal spines which are replaced with fine hairs.
