Beautiful Demoiselle
Calopteryx virgo
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Metallic blue-green with dark wings, fluttering over a fast burn like a butterfly.
A large, spectacular damselfly. Males have a brilliant metallic blue-green body and almost entirely dark blue-brown wings; females are bronze-green with smoky brown wings and a small white spot near the tip. Beautiful demoiselles need fast, clean, stony rivers and burns with sandy or gravelly beds, so their presence is a genuine indicator of good water quality.
Behaviour
The flight is quite unlike other damselflies — a slow, fluttering, butterfly-like beat, often with the wings held wide. Males hold territories along a stretch of burn and perform a display flight for females, hovering and flicking the wings open to show the dark colour. Larvae live among tree roots and gravel in flowing water for two years before emerging.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Demoiselles (Calopterygidae)
- Size
- Body 45–49 mm
- Status
- Native; an indicator of clean, fast-flowing water
Photo by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons