More Red-veined Darters

I visited again, hoping to find some males and again only found females, still they are very attractive and worth seeing. I met Jim D. and we saw 2-3 (it's dificult to tell when they are buzzing around). Also many pairs of mating Common Darter, a few Migrants and Common Blue Damselflies. I had to check all the male Darters just in case they were of the Red-veined variety.

Red-veined Darters turning Red

Graham Bentley shot this picture which shows a male turning red and getting its red veins. I visited today (Friday) to see how they were doing, but the weather was cool and cloudy and I only saw one female (top photo) and no males. I did find 4 emerging though, which is quite something for October.

Migrant Hawkers at Thrapston Lakes

Still plenty of Migrant Hawkers around at Thrapston Lakes, including this mating pair.

Red-veined Darters

Graham and I found about 4 more Red-veinded Darters today (26 Sept), all of them recently emerged, taking their first flights.

More Red-veinded Darters Emerging

Jim Dunkley has sent me these photos from 22 Sept which show a male RvD recently emerged along with its exuvia. Note the bicoloured pterostigma on the wings and the reduced abdominal spines on the exuvia. The blue-grey eyes are not clear, perhaps because this is a very recently emerged adult.

Red-veined Darters AND Black Darter at Upton

Following the sightings of the Red-veined Darters oviposting at Upton, I have been visiting every week since the beginning of September to see if any adults had emerged. Well, today was the day!. I was with my son and we met Alan who was also looking for them. We were looking for exuviae in the reeds, when we spotted a Black Darter. Whether this is the same one seen by Doug Goddard at Weston Mill last week is not known, but if it isn't it means there may be more elsewhere. I managed to grab a couple of not very good pictures as it didn't settle for long. When we lost sight of it, we hunted in the ditch and noticed that a male Common Darter was attempting to mate with a very fresh looking female. This turned out to be a newly emerged Red-veined Darter. We got some good photos, and went on to see up to two more all of which were being harassed by male Common Darter. On the way back we located two exuviae.

The Red-veined Darters were beautiful (especially compared with the drab Black Darter). The contrast of the blue-grey lower half of the eyes with the red-brown upper part is incredible and the blue-grey really stands out. The coming week may see more emergences. It is expected that these adults will leave and fly south within a few weeks, and will not stay to breed.

Went to see the Black Darter

I went to Weston Mill pond today, but must have missed the Black Darter. As compensation, I got this shot of a Migrant Hawker and a pair of oviposting Common Darter.