Dragonfly nymph lifespan

[Ukwildlifeo]

Doea anyone have or know of a a source for the length of time each species of dragonfly or damselfly spends as a nymph?

There are short mentions on some species (ie the golden ringed is longest st up to 4 years and the scarce emerald as short as 6 weeks) and I can work out some from the fact Ive had some emergeing from a year old pond this year, but cant find any data covering all or most species.

Can anyone help?

[RoyW]

One of the problems is that the length of time that larvae within a species take to develop can vary depending on the conditions (eg. Golden-ringed Dragonfly larvae will reach maturity far quicker in a warm stream on a south coast heath than in a stream coming down off Scottish mountains).
I'm not sure which books give the most information,but I'll have a look in the morning.

[RoyW]

For British breeding species the Wildguides Dragonfly book by D Smallshire & A Swalsh has most of the information that you are after.

European guides don't tend to have much information because it can be so variable. As an example, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Ischnura elegans, matures in about 1 year in most of Europe, but can have two generations in a year in the Meditterranean, and may take nearly two years to mature in the north.

[jerryh]

Neil,
I recently compiled this information from Smallshire & Swash into a spreadsheet for my own use.
If you'd find it useful, PM me an e-mail address, and I'll forward a copy.

Jerry

[Ukwildlifeo]

Thanks guys I actually have that book too! Never really noticed that the info was for most species too, thought it was just the odd one!