Discarded beautiful demoiselle wings

[Mitty]

Hello,

I was in the New Forest yesterday and found lots of discarded beautiful demoiselle wings by a small stream.



There were about 2 dozen male wings and only couple of female wings in about a 2 metre stretch of shingle, and they were mostly whole.

I haven't found any accounts of damselflies shedding wings so I assume a predator has discarded them, would this be right? What would the predator be?

I was also wondering why the majority were male wings, I know the female wings are harder to spot so it may be because i need a trip to specsavers, or are the populations naturally skewed towards a male majority, or is the predator showing selection for males?

Thanks for looking,

Mitty

[Deer Stalker]

It'll be one of the larger Dragonflies, probably Golden-ringed.

[Mitty]

Oh, that's interesting! My boyfried said he saw a yellow and black dragonfly while I was busy with my camera.

[Deer Stalker]

Originally Posted by Mitty

Oh, that's interesting! My boyfried said he saw a yellow and black dragonfly while I was busy with my camera.

I say probably Golden-ringed as they are the most common large dragonfly on the Forests' streams but there is a chance it could have been one of the Hawkers or Emperor.

I found the same thing on the Forest at Crockford last year.