All the hot weather brought some welcome winged invaders to town last week, as a rare desert dragonfly was spotted on a washing line in Penryn.

The Vagrant Emperor dragonfly breeds around the Sahara and can be blown incredible distances by dusty desert winds.

Their aquatic larvae are able to complete their growth very quickly and the early appearance of this brownish flying insect always attracts attention, as none of Britain's native dragonflies can be seen as flying adults then.

The Emperor is the only species of dragonfly to have been found in Iceland and has even been known to cross the Atlantic to reach the Caribbean.

This latest sighting, of a female which chose to rest on some washing in Penryn on April 16, follows a sighting of a male in Plymouth the day before.

Both sexes of the dragonfly are brown, though the male has a bright blue segment at the base of the abdomen, next to the wings.