Red-eyed damselflies

Well everyone correctly identified yesterday's mystery object!It was a close up of the tufts of hair on a buff ermine caterpillar. A batch of tiny caterpillars appeared on a neighbours ceiling, and were brought to us to be identified, to ensure that they weren't a household pest. They were too tiny to identify to species so we raised them in captivity - feeding them on honeysuckle leaves. They're now almost fully grown and will soon pupate. The moths will emerge next spring, and can then be released in the garden.

Today I've been preparing for our next visit to Chatsworth - three more days of intesive tree surveying. I suspect I won't want to see another veteran tree for a very long time after this! I took the dogs along the river, which was again very high after the weekend's thunderstorms. Everything is muddy and overgrown with nettles and brambles - quite dispiriting. There are normally plenty of dragonflies at this time of year, but I saw only a handful, the most interesting of which was this mating pair of red-eyed damselflies.

The red-eyed damselfly is a small but robust damselfly of canals and slow-flowing rivers, ponds and lakes where it can often be seen sitting on lily pads. It is on the wing from the end of May through to August. Damselfly larvae have three leaf-like appendages at the ends of their bodies. This species is mostly black in colour with a pale blue band at the end of the body, blue patches on the thorax and bright, blood-red eyes. It is more robust than the blue-tailed damselfly, which doesn't have red eyes. The rarer small red-eyed damselfly, which has recently colonised the UK, is very similar but a little smaller and more delicate with orangey-red eyes.