A low, flat wetland near Ely in Cambridgeshire, eastern England, has been named the U.K.’s 23rd dragonfly hot spot by the British Dragonfly Society, the BBC reported. Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve is also the first National Trust reserve to be named a dragonfly hot spot.
In May, the reserve marked 125 years of being cared for by the trust. It has been recognized for its continuing conservation efforts to create ideal conditions for the ancient winged insects to thrive. Today, it is home to 22 of the U.K.’s 57 dragonfly species, including the rare Norfolk Hawker.
Dave Stanforth, partnerships officer for the National Trust at Wicken Fen, said “careful rotation cutting and ditch management… had created the optimal habitat for these fascinating insects”. These works are part of the larger Wider Wicken Fen Vision, a 100-year project launched in 1999 to create an even more diverse landscape for wildlife and people in this remaining stretch of fenland.
The first global assessment of the world’s dragonflies and damselflies carried out by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species in 2021 revealed that 16% of the 6,016 known species of the insects were at risk of extinction, with their freshwater breeding grounds deteriorating rapidly.
In South and Southeast Asia, more than a quarter of all dragonfly and damselfly species are threatened, mostly by the clearing of wetland and rain forest areas to make room for crops such as oil palms, according to the IUCN. In Central and South America, the major cause of their decline is the clearing of forests for residential and commercial construction. While pesticides, other pollutants, and climate change are threats to species in every region of the world, they are the greatest threats to dragonflies in North America and Europe, the IUCN reported.
“Dragonflies and damselflies are absolutely fascinating insects,” Stanforth told the BBC. “Their ancestors existed more than 300 million years ago. They depend on water in all stages of their lifecycle and all need water bodies to breed. Eggs are laid by adults either directly into water or on to plant material on or at the water’s edge.”
At the larval stage, most species spend between one and two years underwater “before developed final-stage larvae climb out onto vegetation for a final moult when the adult dragonfly or damselfly emerges”.
