Willow Emerald Damselfly Nymph

With a few Emerald Damselfly on the wing now and a very early Willow Emerald Damselfly seen during the week in eastern England, I thought I would make a visit to Nethergong yesterday morning in the hope that a walk through the long grasses next to the stream might produce either of the species. On arrival early morning, it was cloudy and quite windy so the task was made harder by the fact that nothing was going to readily fly in these conditions. However, despite a good search of the area and stream side reeds, I could not find any or any exuviae. I suspect that another week will see the Emerald Damselflies emerge and I normally see my first Willow Emerald Damselflies in the second week of July. I had to return home around 8am to take my daughter to karate but decided to return to Nethergong after with my tank where the plan was to do some pond dipping and see whether I could find any nymphs, preferably Emerald and Willow Emerald Damselflies. I was back on site at 9am where I spent a while setting up the tank and sorting  background colours etc. The camera was put on the tripod to make the job easier and then it was time to collect a few nymphs. I tried a few different areas and was surprised to catch a number of well grown Emerald Damselfly nymphs which were easily identifiable by their tennis racket shaped mask and dark banded caudal lamellae. It wasn't long until I soon found a few well grown Willow Emerald Damselfly nymphs which all appeared a little broader along the back compared to the Emerald Damselfly nymphs. The pale banding on the caudal lamellae was evident as was the shorter mask which is one of the key features in identifying this species. I put a well grown individual in the tank on some weed and thankfully, she was more than happy to stay pretty still most of the time where I was able to rattle off a number of pleasing images of this nymph showing the key features. It was very refreshing and nice to be out in the field photographing the nymphs in the tank rather than indoors and although quite a bit of equipment was needed, I could at least park a few metres away. With both the Emerald and Willow Emerald Damselfly nymphs looking ready for emergence pretty soon, I hope that weather permitting that I can return next weekend where hopefully a few are flying. I spent an hour or so at Westbere Lakes this afternoon where I saw c10 Norfolk Hawker and took a number of images which I shall hopefully post during the week.

Willow Emerald Damselfly Nymph 

Willow Emerald Damselfly Nymph Caudal Lamellae 

 Willow Emerald Damselfly Nymph