Exuvia

On a few of my forays this summer I saw dragonfly exuvia clinging to the reeds after the dragonfly had emerged, thinking that it would be an interesting blip when all else failed.

All else failed.

You may be wanting to know, as do I definitively, which larvae this has come from. I have studied my book and gone online but honestly all this isn't easy.

I know it's a hawker and it's 39/40mm in length . I would say possibly because it's body is bent which this narrows down to a migrant hawker, common or brown hawker, (the southern hawker diagram looks fatter) and I'm bouncing between the three as I've been in areas where all are prevalent.               

I love the detail in the larvae case which is left after the body fluids are redistributed forcing the adult to burst out. The legs harden then the dragonfly with its legs pulls itself out. Again the fluids redistribute to inflate the wings and the dragon finally breathes the air. They harden and the body dries out. I've been lucky enough to see this process many times with my head in a pond many ponds ...

Obviously any help with the ID would be appreciated. 

I have more .....

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