Small Red-eyed Damselfly range expansion

This morning I watched several males of the Small Red-eyed damselfly at North Cave Wetlands, a YWT nature reserve with a diversity of large lakes, shallow reed bed lakes and dragonfly ponds (top shot). It was the first time I see this species in this site, where is now established. The Small Red-eyed is quite a distinctive damselfly, but it can be confused with its relative the Red-eyed Damselfly. The Small Red-eyed has an later flight season (end of July-August, although they do overlap), is smaller, has more blue in the tip of the abdomen and tends to sit with the abdomen curved upwards. Both species like to sit away from the shore, on floating aquatic plants, and individuals come back to the same spot after hunting. Given their habits and small size binoculars are a must to identify it!

Female Small Red-eyed Damselfly at Clubley's Scrapes (Spurn NNR, 21/07/18)

 The Small Red-eyed has been a British species for less than two decades. After a range expansion within Europe culminating with the colonisation of the Netherlands and Belgium, the species was first recorded in coastal sites in the south of the UK in 1999 and rapidly expanded north and west at a pace of 28 km per year. Today it is present up to North Yorkshire, but the rate of expansion is reducing. In 2006 it was first found in East Yorkshire, in a fishing lake in Hull, Oak Road Lake, and now it is present in several East Yorkshire sites.
 Colonisation can be associated with loss of genetic diversity, especially if the species in question is a poor disperser or population growth is slow after establishment. Given the speed and recency of colonisation of the Small Red-eyed Phillips Watts and colleagues investigated the genetic relationship and genetic diversity of nearby European populations and UK ones. It was presumed that the waves of migration came from NW France and Belgium, but there was another colonisation centre in the UK around the Isle of Wight, which hadn't expanded as much. Watts screened Small Red-eyed populations with 10 very variable molecular markers, similar to the markers used in forensics. The Isle of Wight population had less diversity than the remaining British populations, but the populations involved in the main expansion had a similar diversity to European populations investigated, with no evidence of population bottlenecks. This indicated that the waves of colonisation from the continent likely involved large numbers of individuals, and or colonising populations grew rapidly after establishment precluding losses of genetic diversity. Although it might appears surprising that this tiny insect can be capable of long distance dispersal and rapid colonisation, but migration is a increasingly acknowledged feature of many insects.

Small Red-eyed in flight.

Spot the tiny Small Red-eyed underneath an ovipositing pair of Common Darters and a Common Blue Damselfly.

More information
Watts, P. C., Keat, S. & Thompson, D. J. Patterns of spatial genetic structure and diversity at the onset of a rapid range expansion: colonisation of the UK by the small red-eyed damselfly Erythromma viridulum. Biol. Invasions 12, 3887–3903 (2010).