An insect sort of day

Apparently this week is National Insect Week, so here's an appropriately insecty post. The other day we went to Deeping Lakes nature reserve in Lincolnshire. It's a lovely reserve and we always see something interesting, whatever time of year we go. This occasion, though, was definitely dominated by insects. Clouds of damselflies flew up as we walked along. A few stopped for a photo, and quite a few were "otherwise engaged". The photo above shows Common Blue damselflies "in cop" (to use a technical term - cop = copulation).

This is a rather lovely Blue-tailed Damselfly

Male Common Blue Damselfy

A male Banded Demoiselle - such glorious colours.

We didn't see many dragonflies. In fact, I think this was the only one - an immature male Black-tailed Skimmer.

The dragons and damsels didn't get all the limelight. There were plenty of butterflies, too. This Large Skipper posed for us for quite a while.

A common butterfly at this time of year, Meadow Brown.

A Green-veined White, looking as past its best as the Ox-eye Daisy it's feeding on.

Not a great photo as the Hogweed was taller than me!

This is a sawfly. I'm not sure it has a common name. It's scientific name is Arge melanochra. Despite the name, sawflies are not actually flies; they are related to bees, wasps and ants.

Blue-tailed Damselflies "in tandem".