The morning of April 23rd started off somewhat overcast with a cool breeze, which looked like it would hamper my ability to conduct a deliberate search for Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) at Danson Park. Whilst a widespread species, I have not seen it here before, and the London Biodiversity Records centre (GiGL) has no Danson sightings of it in its database. The habitat types here are perhaps not those most favoured by the species either. Nevertheless, the sun eventually came out, and two recently-emerged specimens were found resting on Flag Iris leaves on the channel running off the north west corner of the lake, adjacent to the row of large Poplars, and towards the Bog Garden.
Ffi on this species see:
http://www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/species/large-red-damselfly
This takes the verified number of Dragonfly and Damselfly species recorded in the park to 12, with two others to be confirmed. A full list follows:
Brown Hawker
Migrant Hawker
Emperor Dragonfly
Black-tailed Skimmer
Common Darter
(Broad-bodied Chaser – to be confirmed, also a possible Ruddy Darter)
Banded Demoiselle Damselfly
Azure Damselfly
Common Blue Damselfly
Large Red Damselfly
Red-eyed Damselfly
Small Red-eyed Damselfly
Blue-tailed Damselfly
(Chris Rose)
