#22 Small Red-eyed Damselfly by Keith Gittens
Meet Keith Gittens, County Dragonfly Recorder for North West and North East Yorkshire!
Keith is semi-retired from professional horticulture and has had a lifetime interest in nature and conservation. After becoming focussed on dragonflies over the past 20 years, he is the British Dragonfly Society County Dragonfly Recorder for North West (Vice County 65) and North East Yorkshire (Vice County 62) and is involved in the verification of records and the promotion and conservation of dragonflies. He is also Chairman of the Yorkshire Dragonfly Group. You can contact him via email on vc62@yorkshiredragonflies.org.uk, and find him on twitter at @bladetail.
Small Red-eyed Damselfly © Keith Gittens
Keith’s chosen species is the Small Red-eyed Damselfly Erythromma viridulum. The species was first discovered in the UK in 1999, and since then it has become widespread across central, southern and eastern Britain, recorded as far north as Lancashire and Durham since 2019. It is an unobtrusive little damselfly with cherry red eyes that occurs at any waterbody where there is floating aquatic vegetation or blanket weed. Adults emerge in late July/August usually from the middle of a pond or lake, the larvae crawling up the stems of vegetation that have broken the water’s surface. Immatures may be found in sunny sheltered spots on bushes and trees close to the water body. Once mature they will return to the middle of ponds and lakes on sunny days to breed, the males holding territory on suitable patches of floating vegetation. With the right conditions Small Red-eyed Damselfly can become the most abundant at a site. Keith notes that its bright red eyes, small size, and alert posture give this species a particularly cheeky and endearing character! You can find out more about the Small Red-eyed Damselfly on the NBN Atlas, British Dragonfly Society website, and through the Yorkshire Dragonfly Group.
As a recorder for NE and NW Yorkshire, Keith notes some of the most exciting times in the role are finding and verifying first records for his recording areas. In the case of this species, it was Scarborough in 2010 and the Vale of Mowbray in 2019.
‘When it was first recorded in Hull, I remember making the trip down on a wet and miserable morning hoping we would get some sun. Not to be disappointed the sun did come out and so did the damselflies, giving me my first Yorkshire sighting! As recorder for NE and NW Yorkshire the most exciting times were the first records for my recording areas. Firstly, from the Scarborough area in 2010 and then more latterly from the Vale of Mowbray in 2019.’
His initial interest was first sparked when he was involved in the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Reserve Garbutt Wood, at Sutton Bank. Often finding dragonflies sheltering in the wood from the nearby Lake Gormire, he started to visit the lake to observe them and from there, his fascination grew.
It has taken around 15 years for Small Red-eyed Damselfly to spread across Yorkshire. First recorded in 2006 in Hull, by 2010 it was being recorded from the Scarborough area of North Yorkshire and further west along the Humber. From 2014 it had reached as far north and west as York. More recently, in 2019, it was starting to be recorded from South Yorkshire, pushing into West Yorkshire and through North Yorkshire into Durham. This sort of spread perhaps sounds unusual in light of the ongoing, and worrying, decline of many insect groups in the UK – so what’s going on?
Small Red-eyed Damselfly is the latest in a number of Odonata species to have colonised all four Yorkshire counties in the last 30 years. Since 1990 a total of six species are now regularly recorded across Yorkshire that were previously rare or unknown. The other five species being Emperor (Anax imperator), Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta), Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa), Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum) and Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum). A recent report published by the British Dragonfly Society (The State of Dragonflies in Britain and Ireland 2021) indicates that such colonisation is not only a national trend but occurring across all of Europe. Unfortunately, despite the excitement of having new species successfully colonise new areas in Yorkshire, the conclusion is that the march north by dragonflies is mainly a result of climate warming; the same mechanism that has resulted in the decline of other species.
Pair of Small Red-eyed Damselflies © Keith Gittens
These previously rare species, including the Small Red-eyed Damselfly, have a naturally dispersive behaviour and are fairly generalist in their habitat requirement. This contributes to the relative ease with which they colonise new areas, alongside the changing climate which enables reach into new areas which were previously unsuitable. Colonisation has also been helped in the UK by the establishment of wetland nature reserves from worked out sand and gravel quarries. The trend in new colonisations seems set to continue as we are now seeing records from the south-eastern parts of Yorkshire of another relative newcomer to Britain, the Willow Emerald Damselfly (Chalcolestes viridis).
Monitoring
The spread of this damselfly helps to show the value of recording and how flora and fauna are changing. While the focus of this blog has been on range expansion and the exciting colonisation of a species, it is important to record all species so we can also see any changes in long established residents. With many insects showing signs of decline, without continuous recording it is not always easy to see trends or understand the reasons for them. The British Dragonfly Society collates and verifies records chiefly through irecord but also from BTO recording schemes such as Garden Bird Watch.
Further information and acknowledgements
NEYEDC would like to thank Keith for his time and expertise in helping to create this blog.