Tuesday 15 July 2008

L'Agrion jouvencelle - Azure Bluet Damselfly

I am astonished to discover that I have never featured one of the most common of the blue damselflies on the blog! This photo is from last year, but they should be out and about around Preuilly now. They can be distinguished from the Common Blue Damselfly by the characteristic 'U' shaped mark on their second abdominal segment.

They can be seen from May to August around well vegetated margins of ponds, lakes, ditches, canals and slow-moving rivers as well as sunlit hedge banks, field margins and woodland glades.

By the way, if you are interested in keeping up to date with French Odonata (Dragonflies), there is a very good (fairly new) blog called Chasseur de Dragons (thanks to its author, Geeko, for bringing it to my attention).

Susan

The Naming of Names:

Azure Bluet - known as the Azure Damselfly in the UK.

Coenagrion puella - 'coen' = 'common', 'agrion' = 'wild'; 'puella' = 'girl'

L'Agrion jouvencelle - 'jouvencelle' = 'adolescent'

1 comment:

Katarina said...

What a coincidence! I've taken plenty of photos of L'Agrion jouvencelle this weekend in Vosges (mountains in east France). They are really nice with their blue colour and easy to take because they don't fly a lot. Thanks for telling me what is it.

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