Common Blue Damselfy white legs

[JRsbugs]

Hi,

Got this in my greenhouse. Taken on 13th July 09. Looks like a Common Blue female, legs very white though and ante-humeral stripe is narrow. Could be due to not being fully mature? I have seen pics of immature females with broad ante-humeral stripes, and I read on the dragonfly society site they are broad. It looks to have parasites under the thorax.

Nothing else fits! Could the Common Blue cross with the White-legged? they are said to be at Doddington Park, Lincoln which is not so far from me.

Janet

[Wild-Woman]

Does look a tad poorly. The mites (which I assume they may be) are located where it looks white and unhealthy. I wonder if they are sucking the life juices from it? It doesn't seem to be clinging with all 6 tarsi either.

[Dogghound]

These species wouldnt hybridize. It looks like a blue form female can have pale legs. There is a degree of variability in these insects as with others. The eyes look abit lifeless. Looks very under the weather.

[Gerel]

Hi Janet,

can't add anything to your ID query, but I saw this Large Red female a week or two ago which seems to have a similar mite problem.




Steve

[JRsbugs]

Thanks for the input, I think all agree that it's not quite the normal!

Dogg, you said

It looks like a blue form female can have pale legs.

By the appearance of this one yes that would be true, but has anyone seen one with so much white?

As Jules said, could the mites be sucking the life juices from it? There looks to be only 4 mites so that's not a huge amount, unlike the poor Large Red Steve has posted! I doubt the colour would be sucked from the legs anyway.

If anyone has pics of one similar please post them here!

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by JRsbugs

Thanks for the input, I think all agree that it's not quite the normal!

Perhaps not a 'typical' Common Blue Damsel, but I would consider this individual to be well within normal variation - including the antehumeral stripes (compare these with the dark 'humeral stripe' underneath, the antehumerals are clearly broad in comparison).

Common Blue (and Azure) Damselflies do have white legs occasionally, and these individuals are often mistaken for White-legged Damselflies by inexperienced dragonfly watchers (which didn't happen this time of course!).

If you take a close look at more CB Damsels it probably won't be long before you find another very white one - I have photos somewhere of an immature female which is black and white (will post when I have time to find it).
Your one probably started out similarly pale and has become bluer as it matured.

The poorly appearance is no doubt linked to the eye damage which would presumably make feeding difficult.

Roy.

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by RoyW

If you take a close look at more CB Damsels it probably won't be long before you find another very white one - I have photos somewhere of an immature female which is black and white (will post when I have time to find it).
Your one probably started out similarly pale and has become bluer as it matured.

The poorly appearance is no doubt linked to the eye damage which would presumably make feeding difficult.

Roy.

Thanks Roy, waiting to see your pics! On the 1st July I got a poor pic from a distance of a very pale Common Blue female which is probably the same one, it's very over-exposed though but the legs do look white!

I have had nothing to compare it with, I got an immature male on the 25th June, the last I saw before these was about 3 years ago and that was a dead male in a cobweb! There's always Blue-tailed around and occasionally Azure, had Large Red two years and this year an Emerald and Banded Demoiselle male.

[RoyW]

Found this photo this morning - not the palest individual that I have shots of though...

[JRsbugs]

Thanks Roy, it does look pale but the legs are quite black.

I noticed the black shapes down the back vary too, but most pics I've seen have an outward cuve from the sharp point down to the next segment. Mine has an inward curve the same as in the second segment which they call the thistle shape. Just minor points and another variation I guess, but when separating some species the differences are often very small.

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by JRsbugs

Just minor points and another variation I guess, but when separating some species the differences are often very small.

Very true - the differences between species often are small, you'd think that they'd at least have the decency to be consistant in their differences!

As you say there is some individual variation in the markings (and unfortunately this is true for most Odonata).

I have found another photo of a pale Common Blue, this time with only a thin black line on the legs - less prominent than on the male White-legged Damselfly attached below it;

Immature Common Blue Damselfly with largely white legs


Male White-legged Damselfly


There are also some shots of female Common Blue Damselflies with aparently white legs in the following links (look at the tandem pairs);
Home

British Dragonfly Society - Common Blue Damselfly

Your damselfly is more mature than the examples in my photographs, but the other links show that the pale legs can be retained in colour forms other than the blue female in your pictures.


Roy.