Blue-tailed Damselfly

The blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans) is one of the commonest species.  This is the male with two-toned diamond-shaped spots on his wings and a blue tail.

The female comes in five colour forms.  This is the immature violacea.

She matures to either the male-type colouration (typica)

or an olive green / brown (infuscans).

The other immature female form is rufescens

which matures to the rufescens-obseleta form.

Most of the damselflies I saw today were females, which was good news for the males.  This is a male in tandem with a typica female.

This male is in a wheel with a rufescens-obseleta female

and this one with an infuscans female.

All these photographs were taken within an hour in a 20m stretch of one bank of one small pond.  Amazing.