Giant Wasp/Dragonfly Thing!?

[Chris18]

Hello there,

This is my first post here, I have a bit of a problem in my Garden. I have a pond with fish, newts, frogs & froglets ect and many birds around the garden. Well one afternoon I was by my pond looking at blue dragonfly's when this...thing came along, it was a very big Wasp type creature it had the body of a giant hornet, but a bit longer, and the what appeared to be dragonfly wings, it also hovered above the pond and then started flicking the water with it tail/bottom as if attacking/ laying eggs?

Anyway I was rather worried having never seen anything like this before.

Well it came back again (note it only seems to apear in the hot sun). And I managed to get some pictures of it. Here they are:

Click a picture for a bigger size, or you won't be able to see it.










Can someone please tell me what the hell this thing is? As it could be a killer hornet from aboard or anything, and I'm rather concerned.

Thanks ever so much

-Chris

[squishy]

Looks like a normal dragonfly to me. One of the chasers maybe. Perhaps a female broad bodied chaser, Libellula depressa, but that's just a guess, going by the shape of the abdomen in the photos. On the picture titled WASP210, I can see yellow edges on the abdomen, and I think there are dark patches at the base of the wings, so Libellula depressa does look likely.



If anything that's good for your pond, dragonflies and damsels eat other insects like mosquitoes and they're completely harmless.

The only issue might be the larvae, which are aquatic predators, may take newt tadpoles and frog tadpoles, but that's all just part of a natural ecosystem.

[Chris18]

Thanks I'll look them up, but what about the crazy behavior of flicking it tail in the water?

[Za]

Hi Chris it is looks like a Dragonfly if you look in the photo Gallery

Dragonfly and Damselfly Pictures - Wildlife Photography

(hope this is the correct link ) you might be able to identify it.

Welcome to WAB and I can assure you the thing in your garden will be harmless

[Chris18]

I think your right, It certanly looks like a dragon fly, but there doesn't seem to be a dragon fly with bright yellow with black strips? The photos don't show this through, I mean maybe there is, but in all my reserch I can't find one.

Edit: Just saw an amazing thing! Two of these Wasp/Dragon fly things were by the pond when a sparrow dive bombed the two and chaced on eover the fence....it was an amazing scene to wittness.

Anyway, I'm still confuced about the colour of the things, Bright yellow, with black strips, I've never seen a DF with that before. Also what about the weird behavior of flciking its tail in the water? Is that how DF lay eggs?

[RoyW]

Hi,

As has been suggested, your photographs show a female Broad-bodied Chaser (a dragonfly). Females can be a very bright yellow colour when they emerge, gradually becoming darker as age. Males also start off yellow, becoming pale blue once mature.
The behaviour that you have described is egg laying, some dragonflies lay their eggs into water plants, others (including chasers and related species) drop their eggs into the surface of the water with downward flicks of the abdomen. Take a look at the picture below (one of the ones found in the WAB Gallery:


Once the eggs hatch the larvae live in the water and feed on any small creatures that they find in the pond (midge and mosquito larvae, tadpoles, fish fry, other dragonfly larvae etc). They will grow for 2 years before emerging as adult dragonflies.
Neither the larvae or the adults are any danger at all to people, or to any animals that are too large for them to eat (adults feed on small flying insects like flies, butterflies, and even wasps).

[RoyW]

The photo above is found in the WAB Gallery (by RogerTheCat), I have no idea why the link comes up as an 'external image', and can't seem to correct this by entering other links (every edit I try comes up with the message 'page not found').

[Chris18]

Thats it, Thanks for your help! I'm glad I know what it is now, its nice to know its a dragon fly, I was just put of by the colour and throught it was a wasp of some kind. Anyway I apreciate the help!

Regards

-Chris

[RoyW]

The colours might actually help the dragonflies to survive - less chance of them being attacked if potential predators think that they are giant wasps (and they do have that appearance!).