In Search of Willow Emerald Damselflies

Situated in an area of natural outstanding beauty, we are lucky to play sanctuary to a wonderful range of wildlife on our 40-acre site and welcome many nature experts and enthusiasts.

We recently had the pleasure of welcoming local nature enthusiast, Polly Mair, to the Museum on the hunt for Willow Emerald Damselflies. Polly has kindly shared her experience of searching for the first sighting of these fascinating creatures in our local area.

“I met up with Darron Carver, the Head of Collection & Site Operations, on an unusually pleasant March morning in order to survey the two ponds at the Weald & Downland Living Museum. The plan was to search for evidence of the Willow Emerald Damselfly which is expanding its range in the UK, having established a breeding population here from mainland Europe about 15 years ago, but not yet reported in the 10km square north of Chichester.

The lower pond is tree-lined so not a lot of sun would be able to penetrate through the leaves in summer and, therefore, not a prime place to find damselflies. So we moved to the larger pond which is more open to the sun and therefore looked far more promising.

I used binoculars to scan the willow twigs that were overhanging the water and found the tell-tale signs of egg-laying scars on quite a few twigs! The Willow Emerald is the only damselfly in the UK to lay eggs into the bark of twigs; so we were thrilled to discover that at least one pair of Willow Emerald Damselflies had previously paired up and laid eggs at this site.

In April or May, when the water has warmed up, larvae will emerge from the scars and drop into the pond. This will develop into nymphs before emerging a few months later and transforming into adult damselflies during the summer and autumn. The cycle will then start all over again.

These sightings have been reported to iRecord (a national database for wildlife sightings). I would like to thank Darron and the Museum for being so welcoming and allowing me access to do this survey.”

Polly Mair