Damselflies

About the DVD

 

British Damselflies is the culmination of eight summers filming and many hours editing. The original objective was to create a DVD that would be an aid to the identification of both dragonflies and damselflies.

From the outset of filming I was recording aspects of the insects’ life cycles and behaviour as well as clips for identification purposes that included immature and over mature individuals.

In consequence, this DVD starts with an Introduction offering tips on how to use it and explaining the natural history of both dragonflies and damselflies with particular reference to their anatomy, predators, life cycle, behaviour and habitats.

 

With so much information to share, I had to concentrate on damselflies initially, making a short film on each species which is usually divided into four parts:

  • an introduction to the species
  • male identification
  • female identification
  • breeding behaviour.

Habitat views are included along with graphics showing distribution and flight seasons. Similar damselfly species are compared. In addition, all the species in some family groups (eg. Emerald Damselflies) are compared side by side.

Please take a look at some short examples from the DVD. This was filmed in SD quality at 4:3 ratio. Whilst the distribution information might be out of date, details for identification, life cycle, behaviour and habitats are all relevant. 

 

The running time for the Introduction is approximately 60 minutes and the running time for the Damselfly Species Films is approximately 90 minutes. 19 of the 20 breeding British species are described plus the only vagrant and a couple of potential visitors. The recently rediscovered Dainty Damselfly is included on the Dragonfly DVD although it is extremely rare and local.

Graham Sherwin                                            gswildlife.co.uk

I managed to film a young female Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly last year (2021) and made a short film with previously shot footage. I offered it to Springwatch – but didn’t hear back from them.

I have updated the original video again with close-up footage filmed this year (2022). It now covers male identification plus breeding and feeding habits. I have included clips of Southern Migrant Hawkers to illustrate mating from a dragonfly perspective.

Using close-up footage from this year (2022), this is a much shorter version of the above concentrating on the female  aurantiaca phase.

I was lucky to find these late season Dainty Damselflies (July 2022), and even luckier to witness the sperm transfer in close-up.