Please educate me about Damselflies....

[Red Robin]

I created my small wildlife (no fish) pond last June and was gifted all my plants by friends. Spotting 3 Damselfly nymphs suggest that perhaps their origins came aboard the plants. In the last few weeks I have spotted as many as 12 - Some being slightly larger and brown but mostly green with yellow eyes!







Then yesterday I was honoured with a visit of a female Large Red Damselfly Pyrrohsoma nymphula (not Sympecma fusca as I mistakenly thought). I quickly realised she was laying eggs in the oxygenator plants.



She went to 5 locations in the pond - Spread out fairly evenly and had a rest on a rock halfway through the whole visit, perhaps to dry her body? She seemed unperturbed by the close presence of my digital compact camera and myself.





Q1: What do the eggs look like? The eggs must be very small but nothing was visibly obvious.

Q2: About how many are likely to have been laid?

Q3: What is likely to eat them? I have Palmate Newts and a Southern Hawker Dragonfly nymph (info based on recently finding a floating skin). I have about 4 frog tadpoles left.

Q4: How soon will nymphs emerge?

Q5: Will this female now die very soon?

Q6: At what time of year are the nymphs likely to leave the pond as Damselflies?



Many Thanks for any info

[aeshna5]

Large Red Damselflies are usually the first species (of Odonata) to appear each year, the first usually in April. The earliest record I've seen for this year is of an individual on the 25th March in Cornwall, but this season is very advanced with many species on the wing earlier than normal.

For Large Red Damselflies which lay endophytically (into pondweeds) the eggs are intially transparent but turning brown. The first instar nymphs should emerge after 2-3 weeks + this species usually has a 2 year cycle. Many other damsels here have a one year cycle. The exact frequency will be influenced by environmental conditions.

Apparently the mean lifespan of a mature female is 5.5 days, but can live up to 6 weeks.

[aeshna5]

Forgot to answer your question about predation. Just about anything that is carnivorous in your pond is a potential predator- other dragonfly/damselfly larvae, carnivorous water beetles + their larvae, newts, larger tadpoles, fish if present, etc.

[Red Robin]

Thanks, aeshna - Very informative indeed.