How To Tell The Difference Between Moths And Butterflies
8th April 2024The summer is approaching, and if you have a garden pond you may have the opportunity to spot dragonflies and damselflies. These beautiful delicate insects emerge during May, but are most active during the months of June and July. They favour wetland areas with good water quality for breeding, and will hunt for food in woodlands and hedgerows.
There are 57 recorded species of dragonfly and damselfly in Britain, according to the British Naturalists’ Association, with some species favouring still water bodies such as ponds that are well-stocked with plants, and others preferring flowing water such as rivers and streams.
How to learn more about dragonflies
The British Dragonfly Society (BDS) runs national conservation programmes to monitor and protect this much-loved species. As well as being an important part of the ecosystem and a natural method of controlling mosquitoes, the presence (or absence) of these insects is also a key indicator of the health of a body of water.
Dragonflies and damselflies are also enchanting to watch as they flutter and hover in the air, with their diaphanous wings and flashes of bright colour and markings on the long slender bodies. Unfortunately, like many other species of native wildlife in the UK, they are at risk of habitat loss through climate change, pollution, and changing land use.
The BDS was formed in 1983 and its members work to understand the UK’s dragonfly populations and record changes. They also work to conserve dragonfly habitats and to raise public awareness and engagement with the conservation of the species.
The BDS also runs a recording scheme to compile data and monitor changes in dragonfly populations. This helps them to understand the effects of climate change and other threats to their natural habitats. The society is particularly keen to raise public awareness of dragonflies and the importance of habitat conservation.
They run the Dragonfly Hotspots Project, which consists of prime wetland habitats around the UK. The information gathered by the BDS is used to inform land management policy planners, government bodies, and private landowners.
The BDS also holds public events throughout the year to engage with the public and inform and educate people about dragonfly species and habitats. They currently hold over a million verified dragonfly records, and they encourage members of the public to submit their own records via their online recording system.
If you have your own garden wildlife pond, then you can make your observations there, or alternatively visit a local wetland nature reserve. When you submit your record, you will need to supply your name and contact details; the date of your sighting; the location of your sighting; and what species you saw.
Other information that is useful includes how many dragonflies or damselflies you saw, and any breeding behaviour observed. It does take a little practice to identify the different species, and there is plenty of information online and also field guides that you can buy, with detailed information and illustrations of each UK species.
The BDS advises beginners to narrow down their search by considering which species favour the type of habitat you are observing, and also what time of year they favour. A good starting point is to learn the difference between broader categories of dragonfly, such as hawkers, chasers, and darters.
For example, the Emperor dragonfly is the UK’s largest species of hawker dragonfly, and it emerges in late spring. It favours still water bodies with a good level of vegetation, including ponds and lakes. It is also one of the easiest dragonflies to spot, due to its bright green and blue markings.
The brown hawker also favours well vegetated bodies of water. It is mid-brown in colour with amber wings, and has double yellow stripes on the side of the thorax. The male also has small blue markings on its body.
Dragonflies and damselflies are both members of the Odonata order of insects, but there are some key differences between them.
Dragonflies are very able fliers, because they are able to move each of their four wings independently, meaning that they can quickly turn and change direction mid-air, hover, and even fly backwards. Damselflies are less acrobatic and more fluttery in the air, and they will rest with their wings held closed, unlike dragonflies who usually rest with their wings open.
Dragonflies are larger than damselflies, and they have very large centrally mounted eyes on the front of their head. Their front wings are noticeably narrower than their hindwings. Damselflies have front and back wings of equal size, and eyes on either side of their head.
A well planted pond will act as a magnet to dragonflies and damselflies, and it is important to ensure a good variety of the different categories of pond plants. So plenty of oxygenators to provide a good habitat for their larval stage which can be anything from 3 months to 5 years, and a good selection of flowering marginals to attract insects throughout the growing season.
Within the marginals some strong upright plants are essential so the larvae have something to climb up and out of the pond for their final transition to an adult flying insect. Such plants would include irises, Branched bur reed and Water plantain amongst others, however they will also use Water soldiers and Bog bean, which are much lower growing.
They also favour the pads of Water lilies which they can use as a floating platform for laying their eggs into the water.