Common Blue Damselfly green form

[JRsbugs]

Hi,

I took these on Monday at the fishing lakes behind Whisby garden centre.

The females are different, likely being the "dull green" form. One was obviously fresher than the other, having typical marks, the colours are true.

The other female looked mature, with a rather deep green thorax but the abdomen was a richer apricot colour. I'm intrigued by the differences, is this common?

The fresher yellow female went under water with the male trying to grab her as she went! She disappeared completely out of sight, I waited forever for her to come up but gave up and moved on. The male was hoveing above the spot waiting, so I managed a hover shot!

Janet

[Geoff F]

Well for what this is worth. My book gives the female colour as either blue or green; with the green form gradually fading to brown. So that is probably what you saw.

It certainly has the typical black 'rocket' shapes on the abdomen.

[JRsbugs]

Thanks Geoff, that could explain the abdomen colour of the mature one but the thorax hasn't aged to brown, it's very green.

I have seen other damsels with a different colour on the thorax to the abdomen when they are maturing, but this one looks already quite mature by the depth of colour and reddish colour on the eyes (is that normal?). By contrast, the other female is a more uniform colour, if anything much paler on the thorax.