Saw this stunning damselfly while walking in Nonsuch park the other day. It looks like the head has been mostly bitten off by a predator, which is unfortunate (for me as well as the damselfly) as I’d love to have seen it flying with those beautiful, iridescent wings. From looking at a few common species of damselfly I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a male beautiful demoiselle, which is a little puzzling seeing as their habitat (according to the British Dragonfly Society website) is usually the bankside vegetation of rivers and streams, and the place where I found it was fair from either. Given its state of “post decapitation”, I wonder if a bird could have predated it elsewhere and brought it back to the park, discarding it after eating the nutritious head. Nevertheless, I’ll keep an eye out for one that hasn’t shuffled off it’s mortal coil, as it were.
Tom Richards 