Azure Damselfly

Coenagrion puella

Family Coenagrionidae: Pond Damselflies

According to online sources, the Coenagrionidae family is the largest of the damselfly families, having over 1,300 species worldwide. Often referred to as pond damselflies.

Genus Coenagrion: Eurasian Bluets

There are several species recorded in the UK, but the most common are the Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella), the UK’s most common damselfly and reported/recorded below and the Variable Damselfly (Coenagrion pulchellum) which we are yet to record in the Garden. Males of both species are blue/black, whilst the female has more black, often with green markings.

Azure Damselfly – Coenagrion puella

A regular visitor to the Garden, we seem to see more males than females, the two sexes look slightly different. Males have a distinctive U shape on the second abdomen segment, see image above.

The female, which we believe the following is, can be difficult to identify and markings/colour can vary. On popular Nature Websites (British) we see many images that look like the example we have in the short clip below. However, some literature shows the female to be pale green and black.

They are said to be able to deal with flowing water but in general prefer still water bodies with plenty of vegetation. Hopefully we will record these mating in the Garden to confirm the females appearance.

*1: Dijkstra, K-D.B., A. Schroter & R. Lewington. 2020. Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe. Second Edition. Bloomsbury Publishing, London.