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GOLDEN-RINGED
DRAGONFLIES
IN CUMBRIA |
- This
is a Lake District speciality, being a species of small, deeply cut
moorland streams; it may be encountered further down-stream as summer
comes to an end.
- It
is our largest species and a very attractive one. With golden-yellow
bands on a black body it looks handsome but close inspection of an example
at rest will enable the wonderful green eyes to be seen. They are narrower
than the eyes of hawker dragonflies and meet in a point on the top of
the head.
- They
have a very purposeful flight, moving in one direction along a stretch
of stream before turning round and going back over the same stretch.
After a while they may disappear into the surrounding vegetation.
- The
larvae survive in a very harsh environment; slow flowing streams of
summer may become very fast flowing and icy cold in winter. Consequently
it may take the larvae several years to grow fully.
- Females
have unusually long ovi-positors so that eggs can be laid deep into
the stream bed to stop them being washed away. Similarly, the larvae
largely submerge themselves into the stream bed in order to get a grip
and not be carried away. They generally wait for food to flow past them
rather than go looking for it.
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