Out in the garden this morning, and as always I go to see what’s happening around the pond. I switch on my pump, which has no filter and is open, and helps oxygenate the pond, although I think the oxygenating plants are doing a good job, but the sound and movement of water is always relaxing. And what do I notice? A freshly emerged Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula). drying out in the early morning sun. It’s larval skin which can be seen on the other side of the tube in partial shade, discarded like an old suit. It was lucky it hadn’t gone up in a jet of water when I initially switched the pump on!
It must be the main season for emergence as I discovered lots of these freshly emerged damselflies clinging to pond plants with their old larval skins nearby.
Below, here is one that was made earlier, and is still reluctant to fly until it gets used to its new life out of the water and living in the air.
Please click on the images for a larger, more detailed view.
Edit: Walter, who runs an excellent blog with some astoundingly detailed photographs of dragonflies has observed that this is a female, as indicated by the prominent ovipositor visible on the ventral side of the tip of her abdomen. You can visit his blog via Walter Sandford’s Photoblog.
Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) newly emerged, rear garden pond, Staffordshire, England. May 2017.
Nature Journeys 
Nice find, Pete. It is always a joy to find newly emerged dragonflies and damselflies and to marvel at they undergo. As you undoubtedly noticed, depth of field is a huge challenge. When your subject is so tiny and vulnerable, you don’t want to risk disturbing it.
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Thank you very much, Mike 🙂 Yes, very much so a challenge with depth of field. Thankfully as they are just finding their wings, they were quite content to stay put whilst I did my clicking and snapping away.
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Such an amazing transformation. Thanks for bringing us along – wonderful photos!
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Thank you very much 🙂 I have been like a little kid and excited in discovering all this for myself.
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Amazing photos – you can see their eyes so clearly! It is amazing how you are able to get so close to these guys!
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Thank you 🙂 They had just emerged and just getting used to their new skin and wings, so they kept pretty still for me when I snapped them with my macro lens.
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Wow.
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That shot of the laval skin looks amazing. More like an actual live insect. I suspect you could write a whole blog around your little pond as you have excellent powers of observation and so much happens in and around it.
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Thank you very much, Vicki, I appreciate that 🙂 This emergence was all new to me so you can imagine my excitement when I first discovered it happening around my pond.
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Happy Birthday to the damselfly… is this the same as a dragonfly?
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They are very similar. They both belong to the same insect order Odonata, which is split into two suborders, Zygoptera the damselflies, and Anisoptera, the dragonflies.
You could say they are born twice. First in water, and then into the air.
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Good catch, Pete! The teneral damselfly is a female, as indicated by the prominent ovipositor visible on the ventral side of the tip of her abdomen.
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Thank you very much, Walter 🙂 Great observation, and I will add an edit to the post crediting you for it.
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