Dragonflies and Damselflies

Throughout the summer and early Autumn, you can’t fail to notice the abundance of dragonflies and damselflies around the river. I find them fascinating and can’t resist taking photos if I get the chance. For the beginner (like me) identifying these insects can be tricky and the first thing you need to know is the basic difference between dragonflies and damselflies:

Dragonflies	Damselflies
Larger with strong, sturdy bodies	Smaller, more delicate with long and slim bodies
2 pairs of wings of unequal size. Hind wings are usually broader at the base.	2 pairs of wings of equal size
At rest the wings are held forward or at right-angles to the body	At rest the wings are usually held back in line with the body
Large eyes that often touch	Eyes well separated – more on the sides of the head.

Once you have that sussed, comes the harder task of identifying individual species. I am not even off the starting blocks with this. Males, females and juveniles can look quite different from each other which doesn’t help! These are some of the photos I’ve collected up to now. I’ve labelled them where I think I have ID’d correctly. I’m still working on the others. If you know the un-identified ones or if I’ve made a mistake on the ID please do let me know!

Dragonflies