{"id":9932,"date":"2021-07-12T22:59:22","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T21:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9932"},"modified":"2021-07-12T23:01:55","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T22:01:55","slug":"9932","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9932","title":{"rendered":"Dragons and Damsels"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Dragonflies and Damselflies<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

From warmer days in May onwards you could find Dragonflies in your garden. Whilst it helps if you have a pond, they can fly some distance so most gardens will receive a visit. Dragonflies are bigger insects and usually rest with their wings stretched out at 90 degrees to their body. Damselflies are much daintier and mainly rest with their wings alongside their bodies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If you do not have a pond the best places to see the larger Dragonflies are either the pond in the Community Orchard off Station Road or the Salmon Leaps. One of our largest Dragonflies, the Emperor, can be found on the Salmon Leaps ponds, patrolling up and down and catching smaller insects in mid-air. If you walk through the woods to the Salmon Leaps you might also see two very attractive Damselflies, the Banded and Beautiful Demoiselles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dragonflies lay their eggs often under water or near the surface and the larvae can take anything from 2- 3 months to 5 years to mature during which time they are voracious predators eating worms, snails, leeches, tadpoles and even small fish.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When ready to emerge the larvae climb up vegetation and the adult insects breaks out of the larval skin. You will often see exuvia on these plants which is the remaining skin once the adult has flown off. Dragonflies were one of the first winged insects to evolve and this was around 300 million years ago and some of these were the size of our seagulls.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From warmer days in May onwards you could find Dragonflies in your garden. Whilst it helps if you have a pond, they can fly some distance so most gardens will receive a visit. Dragonflies are bigger insects and usually rest with their wings stretched out at 90 degrees to their body. Damselflies are much daintier and mainly rest with their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6cWjO-9932","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16687,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16687","url_meta":{"origin":9932,"position":0},"title":"Community Orchard Works","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th February 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group Community Orchard Works The wet weather has delayed much of the activity we had planned to do by now. The Community Orchard is waterlogged, and the annual cut of the Upper Orchid Field has been delayed by the muddy conditions. Despite this, the Welsh, Goldsland and Elizabethan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for March 2026"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for March 2026","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=431"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/WWG.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8291,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8291","url_meta":{"origin":9932,"position":1},"title":"Footsteps on Blorenge","author":"Alan Williams","date":"4th September 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Footsteps on Blorenge Blorenge - We began at Keepers Pond (officially Pen-ffordd-goch Pond) in the south-eastern corner of the Black Mountains which is nestled in the hills of the area. Keepers was the final of three reservoirs built to supply water for the forges and works of Garn Ddyrys foundry.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Picture1-e1599259609377.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Picture1-e1599259609377.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Picture1-e1599259609377.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Picture1-e1599259609377.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":797,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=797","url_meta":{"origin":9932,"position":2},"title":"Black Mountains","author":"Alan Williams","date":"2nd September 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We started out from Mynydd Du forest car park, apparently this is the largest forest in the Brecon Beacons National Park. We walked along a stream and crossed it via a bridge. The track led us through trees and gradually we began to climb the valley. The track became narrower\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9777,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9777","url_meta":{"origin":9932,"position":3},"title":"Native Variety Water Lilies","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st June 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"If you are tempted to include a water lily in your pond there is a wide range of colours and types to choose from in the Garden Centres. But what about our native varieties? One is the White Water Lily which looks just as you would expect a water lily\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7226,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7226","url_meta":{"origin":9932,"position":4},"title":"Notice Board Shock","author":"Alan Williams","date":"29th February 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 We had a bit of a shock when we found our noticeboard and bee hotel at the Community Orchard flat on the ground. This happened before storms Ciara and Dennis and it is clear that the very damp conditions on this site have rotted the posts. The structure itself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Collapsed-7-2-20.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Collapsed-7-2-20.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Collapsed-7-2-20.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11951,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11951","url_meta":{"origin":9932,"position":5},"title":"Wildlife Is All Around","author":"Alan Williams","date":"8th July 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"There Is Wildlife All Around Look up - look down; there is wildlife around. Scan the skies for a sighting of the Red Kite, being spotted more frequently around the parish. Common in Shakespeare's London where they helped to keep the streets clean by scavenging for dead animals, the Red\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Picture24.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9932"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9939,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932\/revisions\/9939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}