In the Beat of A Dragonfly’s Heart

Photographs and words – Nick Sidle

Photograph – Southern Hawker, Aeshna cyanea , Glen Convinth, Inverness-shire

It has to be faced, insects are trouble. This should not be misunderstood, they are a vital part of the global ecosystem, fascinating and complex in themselves and many are extraordinarily beautiful, but they are trouble, or at least they can be. In Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Just So Stories’, the tale of ‘The Butterfly that Stamped’ describes a butterfly who is aided by King Solomon to scare his butterfly wife so that she will stop arguing with him. This the king does by using magic to make the palace temporarily disappear, only the male butterfly is allowed to say that this was his power when he stamped his foot. This intimidates the butterfly’s wife so she stops disagreeing with her husband. So, a stamping butterfly becomes a symbol of fear and a huge rallying call to the feminist cause of resisting the patriarchy and suppression.

Photograph – Green Fritillary, Speyeria aglaja, Glen Affric, Inverness-shire

As if this incarnation of a butterfly as a threat was not enough, it pales into insignificance compared to the application of the same insect to understanding the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. Yes, we have reached chaos theory and this phrase is the description of what is called ‘The Butterfly Effect’ where a small butterfly is shown to have the capacity to alter a tornado weeks after but because it flapped its wings. Extrapolations from this can even reach the butterfly moving its wings making a crucial difference which leads to the end of civilisation as we know it. To be fair, this is more in the output of Hollywood than even theoretical science. So, to the beating heart of a dragonfly, and yes, they do have one of sorts at least, which pumps haemolymph, a dragonfly’s blood equivalent. Now, listen to a dragonfly’s heart and with the right species in the right place you are literally listening not to the cause, but to a sign and a warning of the collapse of the world we depend on, and this is emphatically not a Hollywood film. The dragonfly is The Southern Hawker and the place is Scotland, the further North the more urgent the warning.

Photograph – Southern Hawker, Aeshna cyanea , Glen Convinth, Inverness-shire

The Southern Hawker or Aeshna cyanea got its name for a reason and that was it was restricted to the South of the British Isles. Look in a first edition of ‘Britain’s Dragonflies’ by Dave Smallshire and Andy Swash and only two very small population sites are shown in Scotland at all. That was in 2004. Look in the latest fourth edition from 2018 and those small sites have got a lot bigger. Fourteen years is a very short time in the movement of a species and go back before 2000 and many sources do not refer to the Southern Hawker being in Scotland at all and show it only far further South than now in England as well. The arrival of the species and its spread in Scotland is largely attributed to climate change, steadily rising average temperatures have facilitated the movement of this dragonfly northwards. As predicted in the models of climate change, the increasingly frequent extreme weather events including cold snaps are also now with us but do not change the relentless outcome of the shift in the averages.

Photograph – Southern Hawker, Aeshna cyanea , Glen Convinth, Inverness-shire 2012

I first saw a Southern Hawker in Highland Scotland in 2008, I was hoping to, they were an interesting new species. In 2012, I reported what turned out to be the first sighting of one on record in Glen Convinth. Now in the glen there is a pond where I see them every year and their larvae, which confirms they have set up residence and are breeding. They are here to stay and so is climate change. There are of course those who seek to deny the climate is shifting but they are having an ever harder job. The evidence in temperature records and extreme weather events is now almost impossible to overlook, so is the visible, measurable and recordable influence on species and ecosystems. The climate really is shifting, the rate of change is increasing, the effects have begun to be seen and the predictions for the changes to come are extremely serious and very troubling. So, since the climate is shifting and the weather with it, there are of course still follow up questions to ask. Is this natural variation or is it the consequence of human activity. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that it is, we have brought what is coming to our world ourselves through things that we can alter and try and reverse. The next question though is more open. Are any of the changes and responses being called for acceptable to ask for and will they make enough of a difference, and if so which? I’m not qualified to answer that one, are we even talking about a credible response yet? I’m not sure. The future really is at stake and we have to listen to those who have invested their lives in the sciences that give us a map of where we are headed. Having a social media account and posting something on the internet does not qualify you to gauge how the world will be in the future. That applies to far too many of the commentaries and commentators referencing climate change and it applies to me as well. I can ask you to look, the Southern Hawker can tell you to look but it takes specialist expertise to interpret what we are seeing and those specialists are telling us to take action before it is too late. We do need to listen to them as much as we need to listen to the heartbeat of a dragonfly that is the harbinger of the changes to come.

Photograph – Southern Hawker Dragonfly Larva, Aeshna cyanea , Glen Convinth, Inverness-shire

There is however a saying ‘don’t shoot the messenger’. Now they have arrived, let’s enjoy the Southern Hawker for what it is, a beautiful animal and a wonderful example of the design of a living creature wherever that may have come from and however it may have happened.

Photograph – Southern Hawker, Aeshna cyanea , Glen Convinth, Inverness-shire

Males are territorial but several may be using the same pond or stretch of water, they will however patrol it at different times in the day. The female is solitary when she lays her eggs which she does in mud, damp soil and vegetation at the edge of the water.

Photograph – Female Southern Hawker laying eggs, Glen Convinth, Inverness-shire

The name dragonfly suggests an aggressive appearance and they also used to be known as horse-stingers. This is completely false, dragonflies do not possess stings at all and are no threat to horses or people. Now that this is certain and should be generally known, it lets them off a folklore belief from earlier times that they are the guardians of fish and would sting anyone who should not be trying to catch them, the phrase used was an ‘improper person’ who threatened the fish. This sounds more like a story to deter people from fishing in waters that someone high up considered were just for them. A dragonfly that was a guardian of fish would surely sting (if they could and had the responsibility) anyone threatening a fish. A dragonfly that was a guardian of fishing rights would only be targeting ‘improper persons’.

Male Southern Hawker patrolling over a pond, Glen Convinth, Inverness-shire

The Southern Hawker is almost certain to further increase its range in Scotland and is almost certainly in the country to stay. The changes that brought it are one of the most serious issues and threats for people all over the planet. It would be good to remember them as a friend who came to warn us though, rather than as an enemy bringing bad tidings.

Photograph – Southern Hawker, Aeshna cyanea , Glen Convinth, Inverness-shire

Messages to Be Heard

11th January 2023 – Journal article in ‘Advances in Atmospheric Sciences’

Highest ever ocean temperatures were recorded in 2022 across the globe.

Ocean temperatures have been rising since records began in 1958 and showed a significant move to a faster rate of rise from 1990.

Sea surface temperature rises are directly linked to increases in the number and severity of extreme weather events.

Ocean temperatures are less affected by natural climate variation and are more an indicator of systemic climate change.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00376-023-2385-2#citeas

6th January 2023 – UK Met Office National Climate Information Centre reported by the BBC

2022 was the warmest average temperature for the UK on record and was more than 2°C for the first time.

All the ten warmest years on average are in the last twenty years from records back to 1884.

Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland all individually recorded new record high average temperatures in 2022.

A UK average temperature of 10°C would be expected through natural variation once in 500 years. It is now predicted to occur every three to four years. The difference is the contribution by emissions by people through industry and domestic activity.

2022 recorded the highest ever temperatures seen in Scotland, England and Wales. Northern Ireland recorded its highest ever temperature in 2021.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64173485

January 2023 – Copernicus European Climate Change Service

Globally the last eight years up to 2022 are the warmest on record.

In those eight years the average temperature across the earth was more than 1C above the expected level making progress towards the goal of caping the increase to 1.5°C limited. 1.5°C rise is now predicted in the next ten years.

Regions most affected included Europe, the Arctic and Antarctic.

The global average concentration of the greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4 continued to increase and were at the highest ever in 2022.

https://climate.copernicus.eu/globe-2022