Egg Scars!

Willow emerald damselflies arrived in 2007 and the first were seen in Herts in 2014. I've been shooting them every year on my Essex property since 2015. Strangely I've never captured one on willow before.

I was photographing dragons when a willow emerald perched on a willow branch and I snapped it. I was about to delete the image when I looked at my pics on screen and noticed the marks on the lower part of the willow twig below the node. These are egg scars! So excited to have spotted them. These spreadwing damsels lay their eggs in crevices in the bark of willows and other soft-barked trees overhanging water. The eggs overwinter and hatch the next spring. Out of the egg comes the legless, smooth and very light prolarva. It is capable of jumping, something it must do should it have fallen not into but near water. Once moulted the nymph hunts at the bottom of the watercourse and after 3 months a new adult appears.