Golden-ringed dragonflies

If I have a favourite dragonfly it is this one, the Golden-ringed Dragonfly (Cordulegaster boltonii). Large, spectacular and elusive, it is always a thrill to see one.

I have the privilege of helping to count dragonflies on the Hepple Estate in Northumberland National Park and last week Golden-ringed Dragonflies were the stars of the show.  The first I saw was by the Old Pond, a male patrolling over a small area and stopping frequently to have his photo taken.

With Richard Thompson, the estate ecologist and wild guide, I watched another male over the Bottom West Moor ponds.  It seemed to be patrolling rather than hunting and was frequently chased off by Four-spotted Chasers.  We moved on to the Bog Field and saw two Golden-ringed Dragonflies crashed in the grass.  Although they were male and female they weren't a mating pair and the male seemed to have the female in a headlock.

After a few minutes of stalemate he released her and proceeded to patrol the boggy field close by.

The female gradually recovered her dignity but rested for half an hour before flying off, apparently unharmed.

This short video was recorded on my phone from about a foot away and shows she was unconcerned by our presence.

I think the explanation for this episode is that the male was keen on mating and the female was resisting his advances.  In the last photo above the lower half of her abdomen is muddy so I think that she has only recently been ovipositing and wasn't ready to mate again.

The mud is intriguing because it suggests she had been laying her eggs in the waterlogged boggy field or in the pond.  Golden-ringed Dragonflies lay their eggs while bouncing down vertically into the muddy bottom in shallow water - described as being like a pogo stick or the needle on a sewing machine.

Both my guide book and the BDS website mention only rivers and streams as breeding sites for Golden-ringed Dragonflies.  However, last month we saw a female ovipositing in the Old Pond at Hepple (see photo below), I have previously seen a female in Slipper Tarn at Cragside (not far away), and this female was in a boggy area beside a pond.

I did manage to find one comment that the Golden-ringed Dragonfly "breeds in shallow peat runnels or seepages as well as lochs with exposed peaty muddy edges" and I think the Hepple Golden-ringed Dragonflies are breeding in still water as well.  I suppose the proof of this would be to find larvae in the ponds but that will be easier said than done.