I was at an inland beach on the weekend and there were loads of damsel nymphs climbing out of the water, one got onto our picnic blanket and started to hatch. I didn't have a macro lens with me, so had to make do with my walkabout lens - I'm pretty pleased with the results considering. It was really interesting to watch the process, the change in size from the nymph stage to the adult was staggering, and the effort the little fella went through. Watching the wings inflating was amazing. Another interesting thing was that it went a shade or two darker brown just before flying off - it looked as though the skin was hardening.

A quick question for all the entomologists on here - when do the males turn blue? every one that I saw hatching was brown.

#1 Skin coming off


#2 Wings starting to fill


#3 Nearly ready for the off


#4 Gotta find me a man damsel (a bit noisy at this magnification)

by Irelanst, on Flickr
Any comments gratefully received.

No idea when the males turn blue other than they do it with age ( maybe when there old enough to breed themselves ).Stunning photo's those

Neil

Very nice photos

Hi WF, Really smart photo's and showing some fantastic detail. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Best Regards

Stuart

Hi', I believe we have about 9 damsel species in England, and about 7 in Scotland, according to an article once published in FF and FT; one on the subject of The Lowper, which was a hyper-active lure. Perhaps you were seeing a different species from the one you expected to see. Maybe fishtales can help here? Ja

I have a fly that looks exactly like that

thats some lense you got there mate, crackin shots