Azure Damselfly
coenagrion puella
Confusingly, the female Azure Dragonfly is not blue at all. She has the same head and thorax markings as the male but with a glossy green or copper replacing the blue. Her body is largely black with narrow, pale markings.
The Azure Damselfly is a small, bright-blue damselfly which is common around ponds and streams and also hunts in grassland and woodland away from its breeding site.
It is on the wing from the end of May through to August. Damselflies do not fly as strongly as dragonflies, so tend to lie in wait for their insect-prey before catching it in mid-air with their legs. They then perch on a plant to eat it.
The Azure Damselfly has bands of black along its body. To differentiate between the seven species of small blue UK damselflies, it helps to concentrate on the pattern on the second segment of the male's abdomen, just behind the thorax. In the Azure Damselfly, this segment is blue with a black U-shape. Unlike the Common Blue Damselfly, the Azure does not normally fly out over large stretches of water and is not normally on the wing in late summer.
