Female Dragonfly - Darter
A really interesting visitor to the back garden yesterday. I am unsure whether this is a female Vagrant Darter (Sympetrum vulgatum), which is quite a rare migratory species or a female Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum). She lacks many of the markings of the Common Darter (no red spots at wing attachments on thorax, nor any other thin red markings along top of abdomen, but does have relatively little marking on thorax and has brown wing spots, though Common Darter wing spot colours vary). At around 39mm long (fortuitous that she alighted on the plastic cap on the end of the washing line spar, which I could measure afterwards to provide scale), she could be either species. Unfortunately, I failed to get a head-on shot of her, with only some partial 3/4 views of the 'face', but there is a suggestion that she has a black line running along the side of her compound eye, where it meets her 'face', which would be a more certain identification clue. She does have a prominent scale on underside of 9th segment, clearly identifying her as a female (see other post of her uploaded today). Any identification help from any entomology experts gratefully received. Logic suggests she is a Common Darter, with Vagrant Darters being somewhat rare, but I couldn't perfectly reconcile her appearance with that of other photos of female Common Darters.
Female Dragonfly - Darter
A really interesting visitor to the back garden yesterday. I am unsure whether this is a female Vagrant Darter (Sympetrum vulgatum), which is quite a rare migratory species or a female Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum). She lacks many of the markings of the Common Darter (no red spots at wing attachments on thorax, nor any other thin red markings along top of abdomen, but does have relatively little marking on thorax and has brown wing spots, though Common Darter wing spot colours vary). At around 39mm long (fortuitous that she alighted on the plastic cap on the end of the washing line spar, which I could measure afterwards to provide scale), she could be either species. Unfortunately, I failed to get a head-on shot of her, with only some partial 3/4 views of the 'face', but there is a suggestion that she has a black line running along the side of her compound eye, where it meets her 'face', which would be a more certain identification clue. She does have a prominent scale on underside of 9th segment, clearly identifying her as a female (see other post of her uploaded today). Any identification help from any entomology experts gratefully received. Logic suggests she is a Common Darter, with Vagrant Darters being somewhat rare, but I couldn't perfectly reconcile her appearance with that of other photos of female Common Darters.