Coenagrion puella - Azure Damselfly
Phylum: Arthropoda - Class: Insecta - Order: Odonata - Family: Coenagriidae
This lovely damselfly is often seen on garden ponds in summer. The male, shown above, is often confused with the Common Blue Damselfly.
In contrast the female usually has a greenish-blue body and is very different from the black-bodied female of the Common Blue Damselfly Enalagma cyathigerum.
Mating damselflies form what is often referred to as a 'damsel wheel' - an example can be seen above. Paired damselflies can be seen flitting over the water surface and then settling on a floating plant leaf so that after mating the female can dip her oviposotor into the water, attaching eggs to the edge of the leaf.
Please Help Us: If you have found this information interesting and useful, please consider helping to keep First Nature online by making a small donation towards the web hosting and internet costs.
Any donations over and above the essential running costs will help support the conservation work of Plantlife, the Rivers Trust and charitable botanic gardens - as do author royalties and publisher proceeds from books by Pat and Sue.