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Common blue damselfly (Enallagama cyathigerum) The male has a blue abdomen with black spots; the female, a yellow or bluish abdomen with variable dark markings. This species is common throughout Britain. They appear to drift through the air, and they snatch their prey from vegetation. An easy way of telling the difference between damselflies and dragonflies is that damselflies rest with their wings folded lengthways along their body, dragonflies hold theirs out at right angles to the bodies. |
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Common blue damselflies appear in mid to late May and their flight period lasts right through the summer months to September. Adults live for around 12 days on average and in this short period they must breed.
The second photograph shows the early stages of mating, the male first clasps the female by her neck. The base of his abdomen is specially adapted and ends with a small clasp which is used to grab hold of the female. |
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This photograph shows the nest stage of mating, the female bends her body around to his reproductive organs – this is called a mating wheel. |
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Mating can take up to 20 minutes, during this time the pair stay clasped together whilst the females lay their eggs in the tissue of plants both above and below the water line and are capable of remaining submerged for some time. |
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This photograph shows a male damselfly after being caught by a spider. The spider has lain in wait on the grass seed head and pounced when the damselfly landed. In the photograph the spider in just visible in the seed head one of its legs reaching out to the body of the damselfly. |
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Even during mating the damselflies are not safe from spiders, in this photograph a pair of damselflies have been caught in a web, they remained there for some times getting weaker and weaker unable to struggle free from the sticky web. |
