blue-tailed damselfly common bluetail ischnura elegans

the 5 female blue-tailed damselflies
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immature female violacea

The female blue-tailed damselfly is unusual in that it exists in 5 different colours. The thorax of an immature female can be either violet (violacea, pictured left), or reddish-orange (rufescens, pictured below).

When mature, the violacea form can become either the green infuscans adult form or the blue-coloured typica adult form, pictured far right.
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mature female infuscans

OR

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mature female typica
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     immature female rufescens

When mature, the rufescens form becomes the brown rufescens-obsoleta adult form.

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mature female rufescens-obsoleta


ovipositing
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typica female laying eggs into submerged plant debris; unattended by male
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infuscans female ovipositing
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infuscans female ovipositing
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rufescens-obsoleta female ovipositing; still shows strong reddish coloration from its immature rufescens form


in tandem
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male with typica female
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male with infuscans female
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male with rufescens-obsoleta female


mating
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male mating with rufescens-obsoleta female
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... male mating with typica female
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... male mating with infuscans female
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... at first glance this could be mistaken for a male mating with infuscans female, but s8 is blue, so the female is typica and has a greenish thorax
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... male mating with a rufescens female, an immature form. Interestingly, the field-guide Europe's Dragonflies (Smallshire & Swash) reports that this immature type is sometimes seen attached to an adult.
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... here the male mating with the rufescens female also appears to be immature since it has a green thorax (they start young these days!)
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... male mating with rufescens-obsoleta female; the female looks slightly immature
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... immature male (green thorax) mating with typica female
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... male mating with rufescens-obsoleta female
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... male mating with infuscans female


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I suppose there is no reason why the configuration of the mating pair can't be like this, but I've never seen it before. Here is a pair of blue-tailed damselflies in an unusual configuration.
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The male moves the tip of his abdomen towards the female's head ...
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... the pair appear to be in a knot and the female is at right-angles to the male. It looks bizarre.


feeding
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the meal looks like a damselfly and its head is missing
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in flight
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In-flight photo, showing the smears produced by the wing-spots.


portraits
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The male has blue on s8 and contrasting black & white diamond shaped wing-spots.
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Adult female, form typica. Very similar to the male and s8 is blue but thorax is slightly greener and the wing-spots are less strongly contrasting.
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Adult female, form infuscans. s8 is brown and thorax is green.
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Adult female, form rufescens obsoleta. The thorax is light brown and s8 is darker brown.
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immature female rufescens: pinkish side to thorax; s8 is blue
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immature female violacea: violet side to thorax; s8 is blue
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adult female, form infuscans
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adult female, form rufescens obsoleta.
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immature female rufescens
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immature female violacea
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immature male: thorax still greenish
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slightly immature female infuscans since s8 greenish and not brown
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teneral
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teneral