Further Darter Deliberations.

 

Sunday saw me stringing darters yet again despite complacently thinking that I had finally cracked Common Darter identification once and for all. Having wiped the egg off my face I decided to have a closer look at what is an even more variable species than I initially thought. Hopefully my tiny bit of research may help anyone else struggling with these characters. I should point out that I'm primarily a birder who has a bit of a dabble in the dragonfly world and you may well want to back anything I say on the subject up with info from more learned sources.

The males are fairly distinctive, at least in a British context, though if you venture abroad you could encounter very similar species, let's just say that you're on your own with those! No it's those pesky females which present the real challenge and most of those problems, as so many things appear to be to me nowadays, are age related. Female Common Darters appear to undergo gradual colour changes as they grow older and the colour range appears to encompass everything from straw yellow to almost black. I know that individuals from northern populations (which I believe were once known as Highland Darter) are darker than more southerly populations but didn't know such dark specimens could be found here.

As I mentioned in my previous post on the subject it's the yellow on the legs which if seen should decide the issue and it looks as if I should concentrate on this feature if faced with an unusual darter. Both Ruddy and any unlikely Black (one confirmed county record so far) are smaller than Common, Black is the smallest British species of dragonfly but any individuals seen in isolation may be difficult to judge. It certainly seems as if a photograph is very useful when faced with a potentially confusing specimen and is probably essential if claiming a rare or vagrant species. The following pictures depict the range of colour forms that I've encountered this year, there may well be others out there waiting to confuse me, but as you may have already concluded, it doesn't take much to achieve that!


A fresh female showing the mainly yellow colouring on the body and also on the legs.

A more mature individual, a little darker and showing a greyish underside.

Another individual showing red along the spine.

A view from beneath, this individual has noticeably pale legs.

Sunday's "black" darter, an old female Common.

A crop of the previous picture showing red where the wings join the body which is not a feature of Black.

A male Common, relatively straightforward in the UK....thankfully!