Azure Damselfly
Coenagrion puella
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Tell it from the common blue by a small black U on the shoulder segment.
A slim blue-and-black damselfly, very similar to the common blue damselfly. The reliable difference is the marking on the second abdominal segment — a narrow black U-shape rather than a solid stalked mushroom — and a generally more black-on-blue look along the abdomen. Azure damselflies favour smaller, well-vegetated, sheltered ponds and ditches rather than open water.
Behaviour
Azures stay much closer to cover than common blues, flying weakly among emergent vegetation and settling often on reeds and rushes. They hunt small insects taken from foliage or in flight. Pairs remain in tandem while the female lays into floating and emergent plant stems, the male standing upright above her to fend off rivals.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Narrow-winged damselflies (Coenagrionidae)
- Size
- Body 33 mm
- Status
- Native; common in well-vegetated still water
Photo by Jörg Hempel, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons