www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

hi

As a new user of this forum, I have been impressed with the help people have shown to assit people who like myself have a lot to learn.
I wondered if anyone could assit me please.

A visit to Ferymn Woods in Northamptonshire today saw (as expected) very few butterflies Lots of Speckled Woods, a few whites and one Comma.

However there were large numbers of dragonflies about including some Hawkers.
I wondered if anyone can assist please?
Am I correct in thinking that as they clearly showed both blue and green then they must be Southern Hawkers as these are the only UK Hawker with both colours?

I could not manage to upload the pictures but a few are at
http://www.nigelspencer.co.uk/wildlife- ... h-hawk.htm


Thanks Nigel
http://www.nigelspencer.co.uk

Hi Nigel
First the disclaimer, I'm not an expert but my guess is its a Southern Hawker. They have a broad antehumeral stripe (see pic) where a Migrant Hawker which looks very similar has a much smaller one. There is a chance that it could be a Common Hawker but once again the stripe does not look quite right.

I hope this helps
Dave

Dave
Many thanks for your reply and for posting the picture.
I have got the FSC laminated guide to dragonflies. I can see that there is a lot more to correctly identifing them than my skills or the pics in my guide.
I saw many dragonflies yesterday at Ferymn and possibly I have pictures of more than one species.
I thought it was hard enough to ID some birds or butterflies, however dragonflies and moths seem imposible.....

Once again many thanks for your comments and help.

I agree with Dave, this is a male Southern Hawker, great shots

Don't forget, there is a really easy way to recognise the Southern Hawker. The spots on the segments furthest from the thorax (segments 8-10) are joined to make a single spot. This is the only British Hawker that shows this.

Regards
Alexander

Also look at the light 'tack' mark at the back of first abdominal segment. You can use this to differentiate migrant and southern. In migrants the tack narrows quickly and looks like a carpet tack. In southerns there is a noticeable thickening of the shank of the tack until about halfway down then it thins. I call it the golf tee although it's not really exactly like a golf tee.