RXwildlife Sightings

There has not been much insect news from here of late. I don’t know if others feel the same but it seems that hoverflies, dragonflies and butterflies seem to have been rather thin on the ground this year. Anyway, highlights from Castle Water recently have been 50+ Migrant Hawker (probably due to an influx), several Ruddy Darter, very small number of Common Darter, Emperor and a Southern Hawker. Butterflies on the wing have included Small Copper, Painted lady, Red Admiral and Meadow Brown.

Ruddy Darter

Several Emperor dragonflies covered in dew and at stage four of emergence was a nice find early this morning, 20 exuviae in total were found. This species starts to emerge soon after sunset and continues during the night untill dawn, so its always nice to find a few still clinging to their exuvia. The individual pictured below took its maiden flight shortly after the picture was taken after a bout of wing-whirring to warm up the flight muscels. Also of interest was my first Scaeva pyrastri of the year. This conspicuous hoverfly is a migrant and numbers fluctuate from year to year, last summer it was abundent around the reserve and local area.

Female Emperor preparing for its maiden flight at Castle Water this morning.

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While out on the weekly butterfly/dragonfly transect this afternoon I came across several weird looking flies on a gate post. They are called Medetera diadema and belong to the dolichopodidae, also called ‘long-legged flies’ or more often ‘dolis’ by enthusiasts. They are generally small flies with a metallic green colouration and are predatory on other invertebrates (the larvae are either predators or scavengers in aquatic or terrestrial habitats). Truth be told they are a group that I know very little about, with this being one of only two species I can identify with any confidence. They are striking looking flies though, with this genus in particular looking very alien indeed.

Medetera diadema
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A slow trickle of Common Darter are begining to emerge at Castle Water. This species has a long emergence period which can continue into September, adults can still be on the wing into November during mild autumns.

Common Darter at stage 3 of emergence

A fine selection of Black-tailed Skimmer in various states of emergence and in close proximity to each other was a nice find this morning at Castle Water. The stiff breeze had caused several to get dislodged from their chosen emergence support but fortunately they where far enough through the process to crawl up again. A selection of pics are below.

At the resting stage. This one was later blown from the emergence support but managed to survive by crawling back up to complete the wing expansion.

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This week has seen the emergence of what can be considered summer species of dragonfly with Emperor and Black-tailed Skimmer at Castle Water. The odd Hairy Dragonfly (early spring species) can still be found emerging and there has been a steady trickle of Four-spotted Chaser and the occasional Broad-bodied Chaser. Damselflies on the wing include Red-eyed, Variable, Azure, Common Blue and Blue-tailed.

Emerged Four-spotted Chaser with exuvia just in view

The warm, still weather at Castle Water today brought out a nice selection of odonata species. Damselflies included good numbers of Blue-tailed and Common Blue Damselfly (with the odd Azure and Variable in the mix) and a single Large Red Damselfly at Castle Water Hide. Only two species of dragonfly today, Hairy Hawker and Four-spotted Chaser, but both of these were quite abundant. Other species of note included my first Small Copper of the year and the uncommon crab-spider Thanatus striatus.

Four-spotted Chaser
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I was lucky this morning in finding another female Hairy Dragonfly ovipositing, she was closer to the edge of the ditch which enabled some better pictures to be taken. In the picture below if you look closely at the end of the abdomen on the left side you can see the ovipositor slicing into the dead floating vegetation, the eggs will hatch in 3-4 weeks and larval development takes at least two years. Also of note this morning at Castle Water the first emerging Broad-bodied Chaser, pictured below also.

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A steady trickle of emerging Hairy Dragonfly continues in the ditch nearest the hide, Blue-tailed and Variable Damselfly are also emerging now and are present in small numbers. Additional interest was provided by finding a freshly emerged hoverfly which looks like a male Parhelophilus versicolor, pictured below.

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Lots more odonata interest this week at Castle Water. The ditch near the hide which has been checked regularly since 15th of April for the first signs of emergence of the Hairy Dragonfly has started, 35 emergents/exuviae have been found since Tuesday. Another point of interest this morning was finding a female ovipositing, since its takes around a week for adults to mature this female had obviously emerged earlier at another site. The sheltered bays around the viewpoint have also produced the first Common Blue and Azure Damselflies, several Hairy Dragonfly have also been found emerging in the aforementioned area.  I saw my first Hobby also today hawking insects over the reeds, this could be unfortunate for many Hairy Dragonflies as they take there maiden flight. A selection of pictures taken this morning are below.

Male pre flight emergent still clinging to exuvia

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