by Lee Gregory

Following Steve Preddy’s first Willow Emeralds (Chalcolestes viridis) for Gwent and Wales the previous weekend when Cathy and I were up in Northumberland, I was keen to have a look the next weekend. Subsequent to Steve’s record, Paul Grennard found more Willow Emeralds the following Thursday, 21 August, close to Goldcliff village at Monk’s Ditch perched below an Ash tree. After a long week at work, Friday afternoon, 22 August, was our first chance to check; thankfully the weather was nice and sunny but very breezy. Paul’s Ash tree was quite obvious, being a large tree with some branches overhanging the ditch. A quick scan of the Bramble below the tree did not reveal any damsels and I thought it may be too breezy, so checked the nearby more sheltered hedge and Bramble bank but no luck so returned to the Ash.

After a couple of glimpses of damselflies in tandem being blown past in the wind, I picked up a male emerald damselfly species on the opposite bank of the ditch. I took a few distant photos which seemed to show a spur on the side of the thorax but I wasn’t 100% sure. I went to the car and got my telescope and thankfully the damselfly was still present and I could confirm it did have a spur; I could also see the long pale pterostigma and drawn out tip to the abdomen. Excellent! Another Gwent Odonata tick in 2025!

We kept scanning the ditch and Ash tree and subsequently saw a female Common Emerald Damselfly (Lestes sponsa) ovipositing into Reed stems, Bramble and Ivy; also seen were several male Blue-tailed Damselflies (Ischnura elegans) and a male Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum). At around 3.45pm a pair of damselflies flew across the ditch and up into the Ash branches at head height. I managed to stay on them with my binoculars and saw them land and could see they were Willow Emeralds too! The female started to oviposit into the branch and then I noticed another pair of Willow Emeralds next to them on the next twig and then another two pairs ovipositing! All four pairs were very close to each other and another two males were picked up, sat in the same area of twigs. It was clear that I had been scanning past them before as they were quite camouflaged and did not move much once they started egg-laying. I started taking lots of photos, and in spite of looking straight into the sun the photos were actually quite good. On checking the photos I noticed a line of oviposition scars on a twig, and on scanning the surrounding twigs with binoculars there were quite a few clusters of scars on the smooth twigs. Some of the scars looked older as they looked quite weathered and were covered in algae and I guessed they were at least a year old! With a minimum of 11 individual Willow Emeralds seen, it likely means they have not just arrived and have been missed for at least a year. Amazing! We spent quite a time watching them ovipositing; it was quite a slow process with the female laying one egg beneath the bark then reversing the tip of her abdomen back slightly to lay the next and so on.

We are in a very exciting time for dragonfly and damselfly recording with new species colonising from the east; Norfolk Hawker next please Steve!

[The following images were all taken by Lee on 22 August 2025 and provide excellent documentation of a new breeding species of Odonata for Monmouthshire and Wales. Steve Preddy]

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