Can anyone ID this green nymph, please?

vole-woman · #1 (**permalink**) 21-07-2008, 05:00 PM

I found it in my pond just now. It was about 2 inches/5 cm in length. Is is a dragonfly of some sort?

Jason Green · #2 (**permalink**) 21-07-2008, 05:47 PM

That's what I thought too - presumably in a pond of some sort?

vole-woman · #3 (**permalink**) 21-07-2008, 06:05 PM

Yes, in my back garden in Shropshire.

Jason Green · #4 (**permalink**) 21-07-2008, 06:09 PM

Any history of them as adults in your garden? Perhaps it's an emporor by the colour...

djackso · #5 (**permalink**) 21-07-2008, 06:15 PM

It looks very much like this, which is a Southern Hawker nymph, so I'd say it is the larval stage of one of the Hawker dragonflies.

Southern Hawker - Aeshna cyanea - Wildlife Photography

mrs fish · #6 (**permalink**) 21-07-2008, 06:26 PM

What a find

Adam Cheeseman · #7 (**permalink**) 21-07-2008, 06:28 PM

Definitely a Hawker of some sort.

Cheers,

Adam

Dogghound · #8 (**permalink**) 21-07-2008, 08:21 PM

Its the Nymph of The Emperor Dragonfly Anax imperator. Note the large rounded eyes, the green colouration and the extra projections at the tip of the abdomen.

gaviston · #9 (**permalink**) 22-07-2008, 12:31 AM

Do these have to come up for air? Why do they lose their jaw that shoots out like an alien once they grow up?

aeshna5 · #10 (**permalink**) 22-07-2008, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gaviston

Do these have to come up for air? Why do they lose their jaw that shoots out like an alien once they grow up?

As a nymph, a dragonfly breathes through gill like arrangement with oxygen absorbed in the rectum as water flows though. They only start breathing air as they emerge for the transformation to the adult.

They lose the elastic jaw in metamorphosis (why?) + as an adult use their legs like a "basket" capturing other insects.