The Clubtail Dragonfly (Gomphus vulgatissimus) is near threatened nationally, but we are lucky to live near its stronghold the River Severn. The dragonfly is unusual in that it doesn’t stay around the river when it emerges like other dragonflies might, so this makes it hard to find and count. There is one good way and that is to count the shed larval cases and that is what has been done at Bewdley for some years.

A useful aid to the identification of this dragonfly is to note that this is the only species of dragonfly found in the UK with eyes set apart and not touching.

The emergence period is in mid May to early June and so has come to a close now and so we can see how this years counts compares with the previous 8 years. It turns out that this year was below average and the fourth lowest over the last 9 years. This is a little worrying as there are concerns about this species nationally, lets hope it is only a minor blip.

Clubtail Dragonfly ♂ (Gomphus vulgatissimus)

Photograph by – Mike Averill