Both the local meadows, Warneford Meadow and Churchill Meadow, were being patrolled by Britain’s largest dragonfly this morning, the huge Emperor Dragonfly. They cruised up and down the paths, glowing blue, aggressively investigating any passing insect, butterfly or human. Sometimes they approached at eye level and paused, hovering, a few meters in front of my face. Despite the fact that dragonflies have been pretty much unchanged for most of the last 300 million years, the experience was more akin to being scanned by a remote AI drone. The Warneford Meadow male had been in the wars and had damage to three of his four wings:
The Churchill Meadow male was immaculate. It had a bright green thorax, without the thick black lines and yellow “headlights” of a Southern Hawker, and with an obvious black line running down the length of the long, blue abdomen:
As I watched this male take patrolling flights up and down the path towards me, he suddenly jinked off to the left and plucked a Small Skipper butterfly from the air. Quickly settling down on a grass stem, the Emperor Dragonfly then proceeded to devour the butterfly, head first!
Below, using the front legs to finish the meal. Literally devoured by dragons:
