A new atlas of the dragonflies of Britain and Ireland has revealed that many dragonflies are spreading further afield as the climate has grown warmer. The atlas was published by the British Dragonfly Society and used nearly 500,000 observations from over 6,000 volunteers between 2008 and 2012. Comparisons with previous records dating back to the 19th century revealed clear patterns of change. Almost a third of Britain’s resident dragonfly species have expanded their ranges. Dragonflies from the south are spreading northwards, and seven new foreign dragonflies arrived on our shores from abroad for the first time since 1990, including the willow emerald damselfly, a metallic-green coloured creature now found in East Anglia. A further five foreign species have successfully colonised here.
The spread of the small red-eyed damselfly has been particularly remarkable. The male has stunning, bulging red eyes and an electric-blue abdomen and tail tip. It was recorded for the first time in 1999 in southeast England, but is now found as far north as Yorkshire, and it’s spreading further.
“There can be little doubt that modern climatic trends are significantly influencing Britain’s dragonflies,” said Claire Install at the British Dragonfly Society. “After a century when the only major changes to the UK dragonfly fauna have been three extinctions, the last two decades have seen the arrival of numerous new continental species to our shores, several of which have attempted to breed, often successfully. In fact, some ten per cent of our current species are ‘new’.”
And some dragonflies that were previously extremely rare are staging remarkable recoveries. The Norfolk hawkers are large, gingery-brown dragonflies with bright-green eyes, clear wings and a small yellow triangle on the abdomen. They were previously confined to Norfolk and a few sites in neighbouring Suffolk, but this year, the Norfolk hawkers have been sighted in new locations in Kent.
And apart from the spread of dragonflies in increasing numbers, many of them are now starting to fly significantly earlier in the year than before as spring arrives earlier.