Help with black and cream damsefly pls

[Dillybythesea]

They all seem to have oodles of colour variations, but I was wondering which one this is, pls? Help much appreciated!

[jerryh]

Hi Dilly,
Your damsel is a female Blue-tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans

Most other species would have lines on the thorax, but this individual is quite plain.

The Blue-tailed female can come in 5 different colour forms. Some of them have more or less blue on them, some have green, violet or red! Some have lines on the thorax, some don't.
Yours is yellowish-brown and has no lines on the thorax, so it is the form called rufescens-obsoleta.


Jerry

[Dillybythesea]

Many thanks indeed Jerry for such a helpful response! I shall re-read and absorb!

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by jerryh

The Blue-tailed female can come in 5 different colour forms. Some of them have more or less blue on them, some have green, violet or red! Some have lines on the thorax, some don't.
Yours is yellowish-brown and has no lines on the thorax, so it is the form called rufescens-obsoleta.

The photos do show a female Blue-tailed Damselfly, and it is a mature female of the colour form that is often referred to as rufescens-obsoleta. Although this name now seems to be regularly used, particularly on the internet, I believe that the correct name for the colour form should actually be infuscans-obsoleta. This was the name that was originally given to the colour form, before it became known that the pink rufescens form females matured into this form. The link with the immature rufescens form now seems to have led to the name of the mature colour form being misquoted (or perhaps someone decided that the form should be renamed??).
An alternative option is to forget about the names of the colour forms altogether and call this a 'C-type' mature female (as in the European dragonfly guide by Dijkstra & Lewington).

The question is does the name really matter - once you know what the species is?

[Dillybythesea]

Well it's certainly very interesting - and actually very helpful to see how names are given, and how they sometimes need correction over time, resulting in one camp using one version and another the second... at which time total novices arrive on the scene and could come across both and get horribly confused... so yes I'm sure that all such clarification is good. And thank you!