Dragons and damsels

This one was holding its wings flat at rest, and is a good flier, so I think it is a dragonfly. Damsels fold their wings at rest and have a fluttery flight pattern

I took a peek at the Wiki entry which says that there is fossil evidence of dragonflies 325 million years old with wingspans of 750mm. The wonderful metallic colour and irridescence results from a phenomenon called Structural colouration. They live for several years in water as nymphs and then a few days or weeks in the adult form. I heard an dragonfly expert on Radio 4 talking about his life studying the aerodynamics of dragonflies - fascinating stuff it was, too!