A couple of days ago I posted a close-up head shot of a Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens). Here’s an even closer one of her cousin, the Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo), but shot from a different angle so as to show the prongles protuberances behind her eyes, which are the most reliable feature for separating females of the two species. I was lucky that it was a slightly chilly afternoon, even in the shelter of the clearing at Cleeve Prior Mill, and the damsel was torpid, or I doubt she’d have allowed me close enough with the small camera and macro to capture all this detail. If you view the image full-screen you should even be able to make out a trace of her eye facets, which with damselflies are quite hard to capture in a single-shot, available light photo at this magnification.
Because I had a record of a female Beauty redesignated as Banded last week, I put all my images of this specimen into a folder on Dropbox, and invited the County Recorder to give me his verdict before I posted them on iRecord. I was so pleased when he agreed with my identification – and having complimented me on the photos, asked if he could use some of them in his own work – that I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’m 90-something per cent sure that this is the same Demoiselle.
Smug – moi? Well… perhaps just a bit.
R: L2, C9, D8.
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