Azure Damselfly
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| iAzure Damselfly | ||||||||||||||
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| Coenagrion puella Linnaeus, 1758 |
The Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) is a species of dragonfly found in most of Europe. It is remarkable for its distinctive black and blue colouring.
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[edit] Morphology
[edit] Adults
[edit] Males
Adult male Azure damselflies have a head and thorax patterned with blue and black. They have a azure blue abdomen patterned with black markings. The marking on segment two is U-shaped, usually separated from the segment's narrow terminal black band, but sometimes joined to it by a short central bar. Segments three to five are blue with broader black terminal bands, lacking the forward-pointing projection the upper surface which adult male Common Blue Damselfly has. Segment six has a similar pattern but with more restricted blue and a broader area of black, and segment seven is mostly black, with just a narrow blue area at the base. Segment eight and much of segment 9 are sky-blue, forming a noticeable contrasting patch, but there are small dark markings on the rear upperside of segment nine, which adult male Common Blue Damselfly doesn't possess.
[edit] Females
Adult female Azure Damselflies have a head and thorax pattern similar to that of the male, but with dull green replacing the blue colour. The abdominal segments are largely black in colour, with narrow pale markings at the junction between each segment.
[edit] External link
