A Common Hawker has set a UK record for the species. The female common hawker was seen at 830m on Tom a'Choinich, north of Loch Affric the greatest height it has been found in the UK. The previous record was 650m.
According to the Highland Council's biodiversity officer Jonathan Willet:
This species does breed very high up in continental Europe, up to 2,700 metres in the Swiss Alps, but the summers are a lot warmer there.
The pond is found in a sheltered location in a south facing corrie, so this must create a warm microclimate within the pond allowing the larva to develop, but it may spend five years as a larva before it is fully grown and ready to emerge as an adult, which may only live for three to four weeks.
Dragonflies are one of the older forms of life having been around for 325million years. "Experts" believe that a third of British Dragons are now under threat and a new centre has opened at the National Trusts Wicken Fen nature reserve to study them.
1 comment:
I agree, they are amazing.
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