List of Odonata Species of Great Britain - Extinct Species and Casual Breeders

Extinct Species and Casual Breeders

While most species on the list below are either extant established breeding species or rare vagrants, some do not fall into these two categories. The following species bred in the past but are now extinct:

  • Dainty Damselfly – only ever known from marshes along the Thames Estuary in Essex, first recorded in 1946, and last recorded in 1952. Rediscovered 2010.
  • Norfolk Damselfly – only ever known from the Norfolk Broads between 1902 and 1957
  • Orange-spotted Emerald – only ever known from two areas in southern England, one around the River Stour and Moors River in east Dorset, where the species was recorded from 1820 to 1963, and the other on the River Tamar in Devon where the species was recorded in 1946 only.

The following species are sporadic or casual breeders:

  • Yellow-winged Darter – this species has a pattern of establishing small breeding colonies following influxes, but none of these have become permanently established
  • Red-veined Darter – following influxes in previous years, this species, like Yellow-winged Darter, has formed temporary breeding colonies. However, since the mid-1990s, the number of these colonies has increased and many have continued to be present from year-to-year, so this species is now better regarded as a successful colonist.

Read more about this topic:  List Of Odonata Species Of Great Britain

Famous quotes containing the words extinct, species and/or casual:

    One realises, with horror, that the race of men is almost extinct in Europe. Only Christ-like heroes and woman-worshipping Don Juans, and rabid equality-mongrels. The old, hardy, indomitable male is gone.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    The danger lies in forgetting what we had. The flow between generations becomes a trickle, grandchildren tape-recording grandparents’ memories on special occasions perhaps—no casual storytelling jogged by daily life, there being no shared daily life what with migrations, exiles, diasporas, rendings, the search for work. Or there is a shared daily life riddled with holes of silence.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)