Butterfly Brothers Branch Out to Help Us Promote Dragonfly Conservation!
We are SO delighted to be able to share some exciting news with you all – we have not one but two new ambassadors! Joel and Jim Ashton, you may know them as ‘The Butterfly Brothers’, have officially signed up as our charity ambassadors. They are experienced wildlife garden designers and have dedicated their lives … Continued
Volunteer Participation Survey
The Institute for Science and Mathematics at Kiel University, in Germany, would like to invite dragonfly recording volunteers to take part in a 20 minute online survey. Your answers will help researchers to better understand what participants get out of their involvement in citizen science projects. This will help researchers to develop projects in such … Continued
Dragonfly Champion Ruary on the trail of a ‘Flying Fossil’: the New Zealand Bush Giant!
Our very own Dragonfly Champion Ruary Mackenzie Dodds and his wife Kari de Koenigswarter have been searching through the wilds of New Zealand to study the mysterious Bush Giant Dragonfly! The pair had to install large security cameras into wild landscapes in order to film the burrow dwelling larvae of the Bush Giant. They also … Continued
Dragonfly Challenge Coming Soon!
This July the British Dragonfly Society is running the Dragonfly Challenge #DragonflyChallenge2019 Can you find the 6 Challenge species? Follow the Dragonfly Challenge via facebook, twitter or instagram, or sign up to the newsletter for regular dragonfly facts, tips and activities. Find out more on the project web page
Dragonfly Delight at Rodley Hotspot Launch
We’re not quite sure what has happened but the weather behaved itself for another outdoor event! The sun shone on Rodley Nature Reserve as we all assembled our stalls early morning on Saturday. Banded Demoiselles were zipping around nearby and as the Leeds Birdfair at Rodley opened to the public crowds came in to chat … Continued
Stover Dragonfly Hotspot Launch Success!
On Saturday June 1st the weather gods were smiling down on us as we assembled our team of volunteers at the beautiful Stover Country Park in Devon. We were at this special place for a very special reason, to officially launch it as Dragonfly Hotspot! Stover was chosen to receive this special designation because it … Continued
Hopes flying high for seeing rare dragonflies in north Cumbria
An exciting conservation project is introducing one of Britain’s rarest dragonflies to Drumburgh Moss. The white-faced darter, a small, dark dragonfly with a distinctive white head, is currently only found in a handful of sites across England. Cumbria Wildlife Trust, the British Dragonfly Society and Natural England have launched a programme to introduce this rare species at Drumburgh Moss National … Continued
Assistance Needed with Specimen Collection for Portuguese Research Project
Ricardo Bessa is needs the help of British entomologists to complete his PhD at the Research Institute on Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics, in Portugal. The objective of his PhD is to explore the bactericidal properties of insect wings’ nanotopographies from a broad range of insect species and attempt to synthetically replicate those structures. This work builds … Continued
Distribution trends of European dragonflies under climate change
A new study by Tim Termatt et al examines shifts in dragonfly species distribution across Europe in response to a warming climate. Data from a total of 10 European regions and 99 species were studied and compared to changes in climate over recent decades. The results indicate that European dragonfly species are showing an overall … Continued
Clubtail Count
You can now view the full report of the 2018 Clubtail Count results. Thank you to all the volunteers who dedicated their weekends to scour their local rivers for emerging Common Clubtail Dragonflies. The Clubtail Count project will run for its 3rd year this summer (May-July) and will again be focusing on the following Rivers: Dee, Severn, … Continued