It rained quite heavily overnight (which, to be fair, the garden did need), and the morning was overcast and rather dank, but after breakfast I decided to take a quick trip to Cleeve Prior Mill, and when I asked R if he’d like to join me, he surprised me by saying yes. It wasn’t really invertebrate weather and there weren’t all that many insects out and about, but we did find a few Banded Demoiselles, one or two Mayflies, and some bugs and beetles, and because I’d equipped him with the macro binoculars he bought for me a couple of years ago, R had the best possible view of them all. It was really nice for me to share what I do with him, and I think that seeing them in such detail helped him to understand the fascination these little creatures have for me. That said, I don’t think he’s tempted to become a regular bug-botherer – it involves and too much standing around, just looking at things, and not enough physical activity, to really appeal to him.
The best spot of the morning for both of us – and rather unexpected as far as I was concerned, given the weather conditions – was this pair of Blue-tailed Damselflies in cop. R has a particular fondness for damselflies, loving the slightly ethereal way they waft around the place, so I was especially glad that he got the chance to see this pair doing their wafting in perfect love-heart formation.
You probably don’t need me to tell you, but I’m going to anyway, that the blue/green individual here is the male, and the pink one is the female. The greenish areas on the male’s head and thorax are remnants of his immature colouring; as he matures further they will all turn bright blue. There are several colour forms among females of this species, and this one is known as rufescens. As she ages, that deep rose pink will turn brown, and she’ll then be described as rufescens-obsoleta – and clearly there’s no good reason for me to find this term annoying, but nonetheless I do. A lot has been written about female Blue-tailed Damselflies and their different colour forms, some of which is confusing or contradictory, or even frankly wrong, and several years ago I decided that the best way to get it all straight in my head was to write my own account. I’m definitely not claiming that this is better than everyone else’s, but it’s shorter than most and makes better sense than many, and it also has the advantage of being here, if you’d like to read it.
R: L2, C9, D3.
