Les demoiselles

When I was down south recently I had the chance to see our two most beautiful damselflies.  Both are large and spectacularly coloured.  The banded demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) is found up here, although I haven't yet seen one this year.  These are males.  Recent research shows that the area of banding in the wings gets larger as the season progresses, not expanding in individuals but getting more pronounced in later emerging males.

The females have subtle green and pale gold colours with white wing spots near the wing tips.

Beautiful demoiselles (Calopteryx virgo) don't get this far north.  Females have green and bronze colours and the wing spots are farther from the wing tips.

We only saw immature male beautiful demoiselles, which are pretty spectacular in the sunshine.  As they mature their wings will turn a very dark metallic blue and their eyes will turn black.