Annoying

I went to Severn Stoke this morning, to see if anything might be emerging from the river. There wasn't much - in fact, I only found two damselflies along several hundred metres of river bank - but one of those was a Beautiful Demoiselle. As the first Beautiful of the season this had, of course, to be immortalised, but that entailed me wading into a nettle bed to try to get within even long lens distance, and having framed my demoiselle I discovered that there was no way of excluding from the image the ratty broken old bramble stems amongst which he'd chosen to perch. This was irritating, but my faint hope that he might decide to move to a more picturesque spot came to nothing, and in the end I shrugged and walked on. 

I was taking a last quick look around the car park (which can be surprisingly productive of Common Clubtails) when a second Beautiful Demoiselle appeared, and fluttered enticingly past me at about head height. I stalked him, while pretending not to, and held my breath as he drooped towards a handy nettle bed.... only to change his mind at the last minute and lift again, then drift gently into a hawthorn tree. "Did you absolutely have to do that?" I enquired. "I mean - what's wrong with those nettles? Or even the hawthorn branch below this one? You're almost as annoying as your cousin." 

The Beautiful Demoiselle remained politely aloof, and I've since come to feel that I let myself down a bit there, and that I maybe owe him an apology. It's not the photo I wanted, certainly - but I've taken (and probably posted) many worse ones. Those coppery wings are gorgeous against the light, and while his undercarriage might not be his most attractive aspect, it is quite interesting. You don't often get such a good view of a male damselfly's secondary (or accessory) genitalia, beneath S2 of the abdomen, which interlock with the genitalia of the female during copulation and via which a sperm packet is transferred from him to her. The other thing that's quite clearly visible from this angle is the little tubercle behind the eye which is peculiar to this species, and spotting which is sometimes the only certain way of telling if a female demoiselle is Beautiful or Banded.

The BDS has posted a short film about Beautiful Demoiselles here.