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Damselfly - Blog Posts
Went for a walk today. Most of the bugs i saw wouldn't stay still long enough for me to take a picture of them. I think this is a dragonfly or damselfly.
Ebony jewel wing damselfly and common whitetail dragonfly! Members of odonata give me such a magical feeling, little bug dragons
Ebony Jewelwings (Calopteryx maculata), female (top) & male (bottom), taken May 22, 2025, in Georgia, US
A beautiful pair of ebony jewelwings that were fluttering around each other! I wouldn't put it past them to be flirting lol. These pictures are a great side by side comparison of the sexual dimorphism of the species. Females are a dark metallic blue/green with a bold white spot on the apex of each of their four wings, while males are a brilliant metallic green with solid black wings. There are also slight morphological differences, but those are very hard to see unless you have a camera or the insect is very still, which jewelwings are not. I've just learned to remember that white spot = female!
Vesper Bluet (Enallagma vesperum), male, taken May 5, 2025, in Georgia, US
I am here once again with a new damselfly! I've actually seen a couple of these since taking this first photo, but none were as nice looking. Like many bluets, females can be differentiated from males by their thicker abdomen that lacks an elongated black segment on the end. As you can see, the last segment on this male's abdomen is black which would signify his sex if he were the same color as a female. Luckily, the males and females of this species are very easy to tell apart, males being bright yellow and females being blue!
Smoky-winged Dancer (Argia fumipennis ssp. fumipennis), teneral female, taken May 6, 2025, in Georgia, US
Here I am again, filling my blog with damselflies... Update on these guys: the males are STILL brown. It's been 3 weeks!!! When will they turn purple?? They look nice brown as well, but they're not even the pretty brown they get when they're mature. When fully adult, females will become a nice golden brown and males become a vibrant violet, both having black patterning as well. It looks gorgeous, but right now all of them are this sad, pale brown. The day I see a purple male I am going to jump for joy and scare it away lol.
Southern Sprite (Nehalennia integricollis), teneral female, taken May 1, 2025, in Georgia, US
A delicate damsel! I'm extremely excited to have gotten some good pictures of this species, as they're pretty rare in my area. I've only seen one previously, a male last summer. Males of this species can be identified by their bright blue eyes and tail tips which contrast their otherwise green and white body. Females look very similar when fully adult but can be differentiated, having dark blue eyes, duller bodies, and a much smaller blue spot on the tail (white tail spot on the individual in the photo). Now that I'm actually actively looking for damselflies when I go out, I hope I'll see more new faces!
Fragile Forktail (Ischnura posita), male, taken April 24, 2025, in Georgia, US
The fragilist, but not the smallest, of forktails... This species is the third most common damselfly in my area, surpassed only by smoky-winged dancers and turquoise bluets. Despite their small size, they're actually much more amenable to being photographed than the much larger smoky-wingeds. All damselflies are skittish about being photographed, though, so I've been getting a lot of exercise in the form of lunges and squats while chasing these guys around! Sometimes it's not even me scaring them, but other damselflies chasing them off their spot!
Citrine Forktail (Ischnura hastata), female, taken April 24, 2025, in Georgia, US
The damselflies are finally coloring up! The variable dancers are all still teneral, but the fragile and citrine forktails are turning their brilliant colors! Females of this species come in two colors: orange and olive. I've yet to see an olive female, but these guys are fairly uncommon, so I'm not surprised. Regardless, it's nice to see these tiny pops of color flying around!
Turquoise Bluets (Enallagma divagans), teneral (top) and adult (bottom), taken April 13, 2025, in Georgia, US
A couple lifer damselflies from yesterday! I actually initially thought they were different species because I didn't see the black stripe on the top individual immediately. The difference in their coloration is due to the top individual being teneral, a term referring to any arthropod who has recently molted and not had time to harden their exoskeleton. In almost every case, teneral individuals are much paler than more developed ones. In comparison to the fully-formed adult below it, this damselfly is nearly colorless! You can see some blue beginning to develop, but it's mostly metallic brown and lacks black venation on the wings. Soon, its new exoskeleton will dry, and it will be beautiful and blue like the others!
Smoky-winged Dancers (Argia fumipennis ssp. fumipennis), male (top) and female (bottom), taken September 5, 2024, in Georgia, US
The Southeastern subspecies of the Variable Dancer, as opposed to the Violet Dancer in the (sort of) Northeastern US. They're extremely common in my area, appearing in droves along with Fragile Forktails. I absolutely love their colors, both male and female!
Water rusałka design sketches.
Rusałka is creature from slavic folklore, with many regional variations, in general it's evil nature spirit resembling beautiful woman. Honestly idk how to clasify this because there is many sirene (bird ones) and mermaid traits ahhhhh anyway.
Basic 'ology:
Larval stage is freshwater creature, it has both gills and lungs, but can't leave water because of delicate leg structure. Preys on fish, often causing trouble to fishermans. Dangerous to anyone who fell into their domain.
After morphing they remain close to water, luring and attacking imprudent humans in tall reeds and grass, if it's tempting althoug heartless voice and upper body don't distract prey from insect part, great strenght and fast fly is more then enough to fill hunger. "Headband" is actually biological set of eyes and antennas.
Animal inspiration is a species of damselfly, Polish nomenclature name is related to ballad about nymph and betrayal so that's reason behind species. I choosed damselfly bc larvas have nicer tails.
[my fav part^]
(,,nice face" is here because I didn't have nerves to draw it)