Immature Adult Damselfly ?
Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2023 3:23 pm
Walking back from archaeology last Saturday I saw what looked an extremely short damselfly flying in a sunny verge along a narrow country lane. It was no more than half the length of an adult Azure or Common Blue damselfly and flew in a very similar fashion to these, looking for the best spot to land. I hoped it'd do so at the top of the vegetation level but it chose to land on a blade of grass maybe halfway to the ground.
At least it was close to me and I managed one quick un-zoomed shot trying to focus on it through the grass blades. Unfortunately, it then took flight and flew back into the shadows of the very deep verge (backed by weeping willows) and I lost it before I could get a better/closer shot. I waited around for 15 mins for any return to no avail.
A beautiful male Blue-tailed damselfly then landed close to the same spot. I wish it'd been around 30 seconds earlier, as I may have been able to give more of a size reference with both in shot (although Father Dougal type depth-of-field differences may still have made this impossible unless they were directly next to each other).
I appreciate my mystery insect shots tend to be blurry and out of focus (the positive spin is that it adds to the mystique) but at least this one is marginally better than the escapee hot-house one.
Any ideas what it could be ? When I saw it flying, there was no doubt in my mind that it was an adult damselfly that for some reason was just very short in length. On closer inspection of the photo though, the abdomen looks to be a uniform blue colour and somewhat fatter (relatively) with more obvious segment banding than a mature adult. The thorax seems a bit indistinct but with one obvious white stripe.
I assume this must be a very recently emerged adult that has not yet extended to its full length or got its full markings/colouration ? I'd always assumed they did all their post-emergence growing (length-wise at least), while waiting for the blood to pump and wings to harden, with the full colouration then maybe taking a few days extra. But this certainly seemed to fly like a fully developed adult.
At least it was close to me and I managed one quick un-zoomed shot trying to focus on it through the grass blades. Unfortunately, it then took flight and flew back into the shadows of the very deep verge (backed by weeping willows) and I lost it before I could get a better/closer shot. I waited around for 15 mins for any return to no avail.
A beautiful male Blue-tailed damselfly then landed close to the same spot. I wish it'd been around 30 seconds earlier, as I may have been able to give more of a size reference with both in shot (although Father Dougal type depth-of-field differences may still have made this impossible unless they were directly next to each other).
I appreciate my mystery insect shots tend to be blurry and out of focus (the positive spin is that it adds to the mystique) but at least this one is marginally better than the escapee hot-house one.
Any ideas what it could be ? When I saw it flying, there was no doubt in my mind that it was an adult damselfly that for some reason was just very short in length. On closer inspection of the photo though, the abdomen looks to be a uniform blue colour and somewhat fatter (relatively) with more obvious segment banding than a mature adult. The thorax seems a bit indistinct but with one obvious white stripe.
I assume this must be a very recently emerged adult that has not yet extended to its full length or got its full markings/colouration ? I'd always assumed they did all their post-emergence growing (length-wise at least), while waiting for the blood to pump and wings to harden, with the full colouration then maybe taking a few days extra. But this certainly seemed to fly like a fully developed adult.