Moving Day

With a chalk-white face and bright orange and red splayed on its black body, the white-faced darter dragonfly is a sight when it flutters across England. 

However, these creatures face the risk of extinction because their peatland habitat is being destroyed by intensive agriculture, drainage of the wetland, and climate change – the hotter, drier summers are drying out their bog pool breeding sites. 

Conservationists are coming to the rescue, translocating a population of white-faced darters to remote Cumbria and recreating the woodlands and mossy pools they roost and feed in, explained the Guardian. 

“This is an exciting opportunity to boost biodiversity in this beautiful and hidden corner of Cumbria, helping to create a new population of this charming but endangered species,” said Mhairi Maclauchlan, a manager at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ reserve at Campfield Marsh, in a press release. “It’s incredibly rewarding to know we have created the right conditions for white-faced darter.” 

To create the new population, conservationists are collecting sphagnum moss containing dragonfly larvae from the acidic pools where the dragonflies breed and bringing it to the South Solway Mosses national nature reserve. 

If the transportation of the dragonflies this year is successful, Maclauchlan said that they could see adults next spring, and hopefully, the area will come alive with white-faced darters in the future. 

Reintroductions will take place in April and August and will be repeated for five years to establish a stable dragonfly population. 

“Unfortunately, due to habitat loss and climate change, the species cannot be reintroduced to its more southerly historic breeding sites in England,” said Eleanor Colver, the British Dragonfly Society’s conservation officer, in the press release. “However, the cooler climate of the Solway coast and the healthy peat bog of Campfield Marsh provide perfect conditions for the species to thrive.”