A dragonfly sits on a rush stem. Its abdomen is bright red and quite wide. Its eyes and thorax are reddish brown. It has yellow patches at the base of its otherwise-clear wings (there are several common species that also have yellow patches on the wings - the broad and flat abdomen and lack of stripes on the thorax are the features to look for to identify this).

Broad Scarlet. 11 July 2025. Until last year I thought the ones I saw in Italy, where it's common, were the only ones I'd ever see. Then a small breeding group was found in Dorset. Isn't he beautiful? Highlight of my year last year. #libellente #vuurlibel #dragonfly #ento #UKWildlife

A cluster of ant eggs is sitting on a leaf and being hastily tended to by several odorous house ant workers (Tapinoma sessile)

#insectthursday
Odorous house #ant workers and eggs - Tapinoma sessile
(Shot in Cincinnati 3-21-26) 🪳🪲🐜 #photography #macrophotography #wildlifephotography #wildlife #animal #invert #insect #bug #bugsky #ento

A large, mainly brown dragonfly hangs from a dead reed stem. Her position is near vertical, head at the top, parallel with the reed stems and her brown and black colouring with yellow spots causes her to blend into the background unless seen close up.

Migrant Hawker is a relatively late-flying species. This was a very late one - October 2023 at RSPB Fen Drayton in Cambridgeshire. It's a female, hence the lack of blue colouring. #libellente #dragonfly #ento #paardenbijter

"Migrant Hawker" isn't a very appropriate name - some do cross the channel but most are resident breeders here. However it's not as bad a name as the Dutch "horse-biter", which is a total misunderstanding of why they are seen with horses (they eat flies). #libellente #dragonfly #ento #paardenbijter

A blurry photo of a dragonfly in flight. The thorax is brown not green, the abdomen dark not mainly blue and the eyes are green not blue. This separates Lesser Emperor from the more common Emperor, and the blue "saddle" behind the thorax indicates an emperor not a hawker.

This is what we ecologists call a "record shot", i.e. a terrible photo which just catches enough of the key ID features to prove what you were looking at. Lesser Emperor at Lower Moor Farm nature reserve in Wiltshire in 2023. #libellente #dragonfly #ento #zuidelijkekeizerlibel

Day 22. Willow Emerald. A different genus to our other emerald #damselfly species, larger and thinner. Unique among our odonata in laying eggs into tree twigs above ditches, rather than into the water. So it's easier to look for evidence of breeding than it is for other species. #libellente #ento

guita wip
#entoart #ento #fanart #guita #gachiakuta #gachiakutafanart #anime #guitahebbyfantasia #guitafanart

guita sketch
#entoart #ento #fanart #guita #gachiakuta #gachiakutafanart #anime #guitahebbyfantasia #guitafanart

A small, long, thin, greenish-bronze coloured insect sits on a blade of grass. Its eyes are bright blue. There are pale blue patches on its abdomen. It holds its wings spread out, like other Emerald species, not folded along its body like most damselflies.

Scarce Emerald for #libellente. Only found in eastern England in the UK, Essex being best for it. This one was in Canvey Island in July 2023. Males have really bright blue eyes. Colour looks green or bronze depending on the angle of the light. #damselfly #UKWildlife #ento #tangpantserjuffer

#insectthursday
Porcelain #roaches - Gyna lurida
(Shot on #GoPro in my #animalroom 3-18-26) 🪳🪲 #timelapse #invertebrate #insect #cockroach #roach #bug #bugsky #ento #animal

An Ichneumon wasp (Ichneumon cf. centrator) shot top down in the mud

#insectthursday
Ichneumon #wasp - Ichneumon cf. centrator
(Shot near Cincinnati 3-10-26) 🪲🪳🐝🐜 #photography #macrophotography #wildlifephotography #wildlife #nature #animal #invertebrate #insect #bug #bugsky #ento

kasane teto chibi
#entoart #ento #chibi #kasaneteto #tetokasane #fanart #anime #kasanetetofanart #kawaii #Cute #Vgencomm

In the UK, "Southern Hawker" is another species, so we call these "Southern Migrant Hawker"; they look rather like the much smaller Migrant Hawker. They specialise in ditches that dry up in summer so are often fighting over places with no water. #libellente #zuidelijkeglazenmaker #dragonfly #ento

Day 17 of #libellente is the Scarce Chaser. Rather less scarce in the UK than they used to be, but still quite restricted in most of the country. Males easily mistaken for the much commoner Black-tailed Skimmer, females easy to tell apart. #dragonfly #ento

Day 16 of #libellente is for 3 species of Clubtail. The UK only has one, which we call Common Clubtail although it's actually very rare. Interesting that in the Netherlands it prefers small rivers - in the UK it's confined to a few very large ones like the Thames and the Severn. #dragonfly #ento

#ento #entoart en-to #ygo #yugioh #fanart #anime #chibi #cute #kawaii #eviltwin #livetwin #evil #twin

An insect with a very wide abdomen sits on a grass stem. Her abdomen is yellow, the rest of her is mainly brown. Her wings are clear except for dark patches near the bases.

A female Broad-bodied Chaser for #libellente. The very wide body is very distinctive among European #dragonflies. Very spectacular insects and a joy to watch. This one at Ravensroost Wood in early summer 2019. #UKWildlife #ento

Day 15 of #libellente. Broad-bodied Chaser emerges early in the year and is easy to spot, its large size making it a relatively slow flyer by #dragonfly standards. Females are more broad-bodied than males - it's unusual for insect species to be named for predominantly female characteristics. #ento

A large dragonfly sits on a leaf. It has blue eyes, a brown, hairy thorax with yellow stripes and a dark abdomen with blue spots.

Here's a male Hairy #Dragonfly for #libellente. This one was in May 2024 at Lower Moor Farm where they are now well-established. Sometimes called "hairy hawker" because they do look very like hawkers with their blue spots. #UKWildlife #ento

A somewhat chunky dragonfly sits on a dead plant stem floating on the surface of a pond and lays eggs into its underside.

Back in 2019, today's #libellente species Hairy Dragonfly was an exciting new arrival in North Wiltshire. This female was laying eggs at the first place they arrived, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's reserve at Lower Moor Farm. #dragonfly #UKWildlife #ento

Hairy Dragonfly looks very like a hawker species, but is a completely different #dragonfly family. They fly early in the summer. Patchily distributed in the UK but showy, so easy to spot in the places they do live. #libellente #ento

A needle-shaped insect, mainly white with some black markings, sitting on a leaf. Her head is hidden behind a blade of grass.

Many #damselfly species are different colours when they first emerge, often quite pale. Immature female White-legged Damselflies are the only UK species which are actually white. Photo from a @britishdragonflies.bsky.social guided walk in May 2022. #UKWildlife #ento #libellente

Two damselflies mating, The male hangs by his legs from a grass flower, head upwards. The female is the other way up and is not clinging to the grass, she is gripped by the male behind her head and has the tip of her abdomen attached to the front of his.

More White-legged Damselflies for #libellente. Ancient photo from 1 June 2019, because it's the only one I have of a mating pair. The male is pale blue with his back to us, the female yellowish and upside down. Seen at Goring. #damselfly #UKWildlife #ento

A needle-shaped pale blue insect with intricate black markings sits on a blade of grass. The river is out of focus behind it. The hind-most of the three pairs of legs have broad white flares attached to them, making them look very broad.

White-legged Damselfly for #libellente. Photo from the River Thames at Goring, pretty much the only place I see them locally, in 2023. The male is a pale powder-blue with delicate markings. They like slow-flowing rivers. #UKwildlife #ento #damselfly

White-legged Damselfly is quite widespread in the UK but has particular habitat needs so isn't seen all that often. Best spots are beside large, slow rivers like the Thames. Slightly larger than most #damselfly species and rather delicate-looking. #libellente #ento

ENTO
#entoart #ento en-to #en-to #digitalart #art #stylized #graffiti #anime #oc #originalcharacter

A metallic-green insect sits on a leaf slightly above the surface of a shallow stream. Its wings are dark coloured - it shows these off in flight to impress females. The other Demoiselle species in the UK is Banded Demoiselle which has dark patches on its wings not solidly dark.

The aptly-named Beautiful Demoiselle. This male was at a small New Forest stream in early July 2024. Note the all-dark wings. They do display flights like the Banded Demoiselles do, these 2 are the only UK dragon/damsel species which use display flights. #libellente #damselfly #ento #UKWildlife

A large green insect with clear wings sits on a nettle leaf. She holds her wings closed, being a damselfly, but in other respects looks more like a dragonfly. Her wings have white spots near the tips, which are typical of female demoiselles.

A female Banded Demoiselle, from the River Thames at Goring in 2023. Green body with clear wings without the dark patches of the male but with distinct white spots. They often lurk beside rivers, waiting for a male to impress them with his display flight. #libellente #damslefly #UKWildlife #ento

A jumping bristletail (Trigoniophthalmus sp.) on a rock facing the right of frame and shot in profile

#insectthursday
Jumping bristletail - Trigoniophthalmus sp.
(Shot near Cincinnati 3-10-26) 🪳🪲 #photography #macrophotography #wildlifephotography #wildlife #nature #animal #invertebrate #insect #bugsky #bug #ento

An illustration from The House At Pooh Corner of a moment when Pooh decides to sit in the sun on a stone in the river. Although not mentioned in the text of the book, in the picture he is clearly watching a dragonfly which appears to be making a display flight. This is very likely to be a Banded Demoiselle although Beautiful Demoiselle is also found in that part of Sussex.

As Banded Demoiselle is one of the #libellente species today, that's a good excuse to re-share one of the best ever drawings of a #dragonfly survey. E H Sheppard in an illustration for The House At Pooh Corner. Habitat & the way it's flying suggest this is a Banded Demoiselle. #weidebeekjuffer #ento