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Monday 21 July 2014

Penallta Parc & Parc Cwm Darren 20/07/2014

Alot of action at the horse shoe ponds with a couple of Emperor Dragonflies patroling Two of the ponds and Five male Broad-bodied Chasers keeping them busy.
There were also the normal Common Darters but no Black Darters yet.

On the Damselfly side there where alot of Azure, Blue-tailed and Large Reds about. Also plenty of Emeralds.
Away from the ponds on the footpath near-by was this nice Golden Ringed Dragon.
I then moved on to Parc Cwm Darren and the new pond to the left of the Visitor Centre.
Again this was being patroled by Two Emperors but they did not fight alot so could have been a male and female (managed a photo of one when it came to rest).
I also found this cast in amongst the weed by the bank, could it be from the Emperor? if so it is a good indicater of breeding. It was approx 50-60mm long.
There were also plenty of Damsels about with a good number of Emeralds.
And lastly this Common Darter or is it? the more I look at it the more it looks like a Ruddy Darter but I think it could just be the angle of the photo. Any comments?



1 comment:

Mark Hipkin said...

Hi Mike, great post! The Ruddy Darter find is very nice indeed. The general colour and shape to abdomen is fairly conclusive, but the black markings extending down the side of the frons are a real clincher. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is a new site record. It'll certainly be worth keeping an eye on the area to see if numbers present might lead to breeding there?
Good to see the excuviae photo of the Emperor Dragonfly. There's a very good book sold through the BDS 'Field Guide to the larvae and exuviae of British Dragonflies' which this post has encouraged me to now buy.