The whole process takes a few hours. On a sunny day the nymphs crawl out of the water onto a lily pad to dry out. They then find a reed stem and attach themselves about 10cm above the water. After hatching they bask in the sun (hanging onto the"nymph husk") until their wings are dried out (and pressurised?) before flying off. They were in various stages of development when I took the photo's and this continued for a few days after. They were all of one species (my Mum has the name, I'll ask her) and we expect further hatches later in the season of (hopefully) more decorative species.

The photo's are not in chronological order, the first was number five, freshly hatched with soft, unpressurised wings.

Cool.  I like first and fourth.  You were just so lucky to be in the vicinity at the very time they were all hatching?  Did they hatch within minutes of one another?

Okay, I've reposted them in their original format as they seem to have lost some detail when they were "optimized" by Chess.com.

kafka