Please help to ID damselfly larvae found in my fish tank

[Salticidae]

I found 4 damselfly larvae in my fish tank. I presume they must have come with the plants I ordered a few weeks ago. Please could you help identifying them. Im not sure whether they are native or not as I believe aquarium plants can be shipped in from abroad? If they are native then I will release them in my garden pond.

Sorry for the blurry photos

[Geoff F]

Firstly, I know very little about larvae, but nobody else has replied.

Just going by those tails, which are forked into two not three extensions. I wonder if this might actually be Stonefly Larvae.

But, there are a great many larvae and, as I said, I know very little about them.

However, perhaps this will encourage a more knowledgeable member to reply.

[Salticidae]

Thankyou Geoff

I had a look at stonefly larvae and I think these are damselfly larvae with some of their caudal lamellae missing. I guess I will just have to try and raise them to adulthood and then see if they can be identified then.

[Wild-Woman]

They are definitely damselfly nymphs- it's lost one of its caudal lamella, thats all. They can get by without one or two.
The only positive way of finding out what species they are is to wait until they emerge as adults and have matured.
It's quite likely to be a British species, especially if the supplier had tanks with the aquarium plants outside. I think I'd find out where his supply originated from if you can to see if it was possible that its a non-native.
Interesting! Keep us posted.

[Wild-Woman]

PS- If you want to raise them, they'll need a bit of grub in the form of live food and if they're in a heated aquarium their growth may speed up. If they start climbing, they'll need a stick or some other sort of structure to climb out to emerge on.

[aeshna5]

I remember last year there were at least a couple of examples of Ischnura senegalensis arriving in imported pondweed, so though these may native, they may not. It will certainly be interesting to se what they turn out to be.

[RoyW]

These look like they are from the Coenagrionidae family, although there is no way that they can be identified to species from the photos (with no idea of where in the world they may have come from it would almost certainly also be very difficult, if not impossible, with close examination of the larvae themselves).

I would think that Aeshna is right to suggest that there is a chance that they may be a foreign species like Ischnura senegalensis - as well as the examples found in the UK last year, I know of the species being found emerging from fish tanks in the country this year.

[Salticidae]

I have been feeding them live daphnia and found that one had emerged this morning onto the piece of wood I put in the tank. I have moved it into my newt vivarium for the moment. Here are the pictures

[Salticidae]

Just googled Ischnura senegalensis and it does look like some of the pictures

[RoyW]

It is an Ischnura (Blue-tail) species, and not one of the ones normally found in the UK. I would think that it is likely to be I. senegalensis, which is a species that it widespread in Asia and Africa, but it's not really possible to say for certain from these photos (positive ID would probably require close examination with a hand lens and reference to various books).