Blue-tailed damselfly facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Blue-tailed damselfly
Mature male
Female, form rufescens
Scientific classification
Synonyms
Agrion elegans Vander Linden, 1820 Agrion rubens Evans, 1845 Ischnura lamellata Kolbe, 1885

The blue-tailed damselfly or common bluetail (Ischnura elegans) is a damselfly, belonging to the family Coenagrionidae.

Subspecies and varieties

Subspecies and varieties include:

• Ischnura elegans ebneri Schmidt, 1938
• Ischnura elegans elegans (Vander Linden, 1820)
• Ischnura elegans pontica Schmidt, 1939
• Ischnura elegans f. infuscans
• Ischnura elegans f. infuscans-obsoleta
• Ischnura elegans f. rufescens
• Ischnura elegans f. typica
• Ischnura elegans f. violacea

Distribution

This species is present in most of Europe and the middle-east. It is a common species.

Habitat

These damselflies can be found in a wide range of lowland environments, with standing and slow flowing waters, brackish and polluted water.

Description

mating

Ischnura elegans can reach a body length of 27–35 millimetres (1.1–1.4 in) and a wingspan of about 35 millimetres (1.4 in). Hindwings reach alength of 14–20 millimetres (0.55–0.79 in). Adult male blue-tailed damselflies have a head and thorax patterned with blue and black. There is a bi-coloured pterostigma on the front wings. Eyes are blue. They have a largely black abdomen with very narrow pale markings where each segment joins the next. Segment eight, however, is entirely pale blue. At rest, the wings of most damselfly species are held back together, unlike dragonflies, which rest with their wings out flat. The thorax of juvenile males has a green tinge.

Female blue-tailed Damselflies come in a variety of colour forms. Juveniles may be salmon pink, form rufescens; violet, form violacea and a pale green form. The colour darkens as the damselfly ages. Mature females may be blue like the male, form typica; olive green thorax and brown spot, form infuscans or pale brown thorax and brown spot, form infusca-obseleta.

Biology and behavior

Adults fly from April to September to early October. The adult damselflies prey on small flying insects, caught using their legs like a basket to scoop the prey up while flying, or insects taken from leaves. Damselfly nymphs are aquatic, and prey on small aquatic insects or other aquatic larvae.

A male can try to interfere with a mating pair, by attaching itself to the mating male. The females always lay their eggs on the floating parts of the plants without any involvement of the male.

Blue-tailed Damselflies are superb fliers and can alter each of their four wing's kinematics in order to maneuver. A recent study has shown that they can compensate for a whole wing loss and even successfully maneuver and catch prey.

Female Polymorphism

In order to avoid unwanted mating attempts, females have developed polymorphisms that allow some of them to avoid recognition by males by mimicking male phenotypes. Females are able to fully mature into their differing morph colorations just a few days after they finish their transition from aquatic larvae to their mature forms. Along with that, the morphs also display different mate avoidance tactics.

Mating and Behavior

The I. elegans species of damselflies participate in a male scramble mate choice mating system in which a males mating success is determined by how fast they are able to find a mate.

I. elegans have the ability to rapidly adapt to their environments which puts them under heavy selective pressures.  As this species has originated from tropical environments, their hatching times are often shorter in warmer temperatures than cooler temperatures.  Females are also more likely to spend time near bodies of water as that is where they lay their eggs.  

Gallery

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  Mating, female f. typica

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  nymph

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  emerging

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  Immature male

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  teneral female form rufescens

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  Female form rufescens

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  Female form violacea

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  Female form rufescens-obsoleta