WE have been on the receiving end of quite a wet, miserable summer, with drab dreary days far outweighing the few moments of sun. However, the last few days of September have been a lot more cheery and have had an almost spring time feel.

Plants in general are not so good at making the most of late season upturns in the weather and many of the trees are already starting to show the first signs of autumnal change in their leaves.

Some insects on the other hand, have had a last minute flurry to make the most of the good weather, to make sure next year’s brood has every chance for success. The most spectacular of the insects that has been at large the last few days has to be the emperor dragonfly. This formidable predator can have a wing span of up to 11cm and can fly with superb precision at speeds up to 18 miles an hour.

Emperor dragonflies will have spent the previous two to three years living as terrors of the deep. Armed with a vicious, barb toothed rapidly extendable lower jaw, which it can shoot out and impale tadpoles and even small fish, the immature larval emperor dragonflies are many a small pool’s top predator.

With its face masked by its lower jaw and a drab brown segmented body the lava are really unattractive creatures but when they feel the time is right they climb up out of the pool and shed their ugly larval skin to reveal the beautiful iridescent green and blue body and fantastically intricate wings of the adult emperor dragonfly.

As lava the emperor was a ferocious predator and nothing changes with the adult except for the tactics it uses and the prey it takes. As lava, the emperor relied on ambush tactics but as an adult the Emperor is a member of the hawker dragonfly family, all of which hunt actively on the wing. They have long hairy legs, which they use like a little net to scoop up insects in flight.

They then either consume their prey there and then, using their sharp and effective jaws, or if it is a particularly large insect make for a perch before eating it. A few summers ago I witnessed a dragonfly zip across the sky in front of me and pounce on a large white butterfly. In a blink of an eye the dragonfly was off, leaving two pairs of discarded wings to flutter to the floor like falling blossom.

The emperor dragonfly has few natural predators when it is on the wing as there are few birds that are manoeuvrable enough to catch it and out of the few that are, there are even less big enough to take on such a formidable insect.

The only bird I do know is capable of dispatching an Emperor on the wing is the hobby and these days it’s a very special day indeed when we can see one of these magnificent birds.

However, as the morning get colder, the emperors take longer and longer to warm their muscles ready for flight after the cold of the night. I have come across quite a few emperors over the years first thing in the morning.

When they are cold, you can handle them gently and get a fantastic detailed view of these beautiful animals.

So with time getting harder and harder for the emperors they will waste no time finding a mate and laying eggs for the next generation in pools around the district.

So, for the next week or so, we should take every chance we get to have a good look and marvel at these wonderful and beautiful creatures.