Migrant Hawker v's Southern Migrant Hawker

With the excellent season this year for the Southern Migrant Hawkers in Southern England and with good numbers at some locations being noted, it looks likely that this dragonfly will hopefully continue to expand its range over the next few years. I was fortunate enough earlier in the year to find my first Southern Migrant Hawker exuviae in Essex and having never seen them before, I was not too sure of the features needed to confirm the identity to this species. Although Southern Migrant Hawkers emerge slightly earlier than the Migrant Hawker, there will no doubt be an overlap as far as finding exuviae so with this in mind and not that much information readily available in books and the internet, I decided to photograph the two species exuviae alongside each other to show the main feature differences between them. As well as personally now being quite confident with identifying both species exuviae in the field, I am hopeful that they will provide some valuable information for other enthusiasts to use should they come either species exuviae in the near future.