This is an emperor dragonfly. It began its life as a tiny egg laid in my wildlife pond where it hatched into a nymph much smaller than the one you see here. It will have shed its skin several times over the two years it took to reach maturity.
When it was time for the nymph to transform into an adult dragonfly it climbed out of the water onto the plant stem and secured itself with little barbs on its feet.
If you look closely you can see the dragonfly has emerged from the exoskeleton through a whole part way down its back. Once it had broken free from the shell was a teneral, this is the term for a newly emerged soft-bodied adult. At this stage it is pale with crumpled wings and extremely vulnerable to predation.
At first the teneral hung upside down, continuing metamorphosis. Then it pulled itself upright, drew its tail out of the remaining shell and took time to allow its new body to harden. It pumped fluid into its wings to enable them to expand and become functional. This can take several hours and will continue even after it has flown away.
At almost 8cm long the emperor dragonfly is one of the largest species in Europe. They are usually on the wing between June and August and can live for up to two months. They eat insects, butterflies, wasps and even other dragonflies.