The Red-veined Darter is a fairly recent colonist to England, and the first one for my county of Leicestershire was found as recently as 2003. It so happened that it was found at Croft Quarry (my local patch). 2006 was another good year for pioneering dragonfly species, and during September we spotted at least ten RVD's around the general area of my patch. It would be most likely that adults arrived unseen during May/June, and successfully laid their eggs. This species only takes three months for adults to take to the wing after their eggs are laid: other dragonfly species generally take at least a year to reach the flight stage of their life. These individuals gave us plenty of opportunities to study them; however, none attained the bright red colour of the adult male before disappearing – unlike the males pictured below, which were photographed in Spain.