Article by Tim Corner
White-legged Damselfly strangely enough has white legs. It is a pale species and does not stand out as well as the blue, green or red damselflies. The legs though are a distinctive feature, particularly of the pale blue males who can sometimes be seen flying with their white, feathery looking, legs dangling down.
It is a relatively uncommon damselfly, although possibly often overlooked, and recording it can tell us quite a bit about the watercourse from which it emerged. One of this damselfly’s requirements is emergent vegetation, such as Reed Sweet-grass Glyceria maxima, that is stable, to be able to climb up out of the water when emerging as an adult. It also seems to need a water flow that is slow-moving and constant, and the plants assist in regulating the flow. Following mating, females will eventually lay their eggs on the underside of floating plants such as Yellow Water-lily Nuphar lutea. As adults they will often move to adjacent fields of tall or damp grassland. They are said to be particularly susceptible to pollution.
As well as pollution one threat to this combination of conditions is the removal of the plants in the water and on the bank side. This can occur through frequent dredging and bank side clearance for flood control or drainage reasons and a watercourse with this type of intense management is unlikely to support White-legged Damselfly.
Therefore a record of this damselfly can also tell us that there will be established emergent and possibly floating plants and that there is likely to be suitable habitat for a variety of other animals, such as places to nest for Moorhen and Reed Bunting, food sources for a range of invertebrates, amphibians and fish and even possibly Water Voles in the bank sides
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