Our Island Resident Species-Damselflies(1).

 Although several counties of the UK can boast more species, the Isle of Wight has,  to the best of my knowledge, twenty three species of dragonfly and damselfly.  All our damselflies are generally common around the UK, however that changed somewhat with the discovery of the Southern Emerald Damselfly, Lestes barbarus, in 2017 in a forested site in the West Wight. It was later confirmed that this new species has been at this location since at least 2015.

Perhaps the three most prolific species of damselfly are the Azure,Large Red,and the Blue-tailed.Closely following them in abundance could be the Common Blue Damselfly.The Azure is found in particular, in small ponds and ditches and emerges in the spring.The male is blue and the female has two colour forms,green with black and  a blue form.

Emerging slightly eariler than the Azure is the Large Red Damselfly.Another very common species and found in various habitats.There are three colour forms in the female including the mainly black  melanotum. 

Colour forms are again seen in the Blue-tailed Damselfly with five in the female. Perhaps the most attractive is violacea, a  colour seen in some immature females displaying lilac sides to the thorax. Another is  rufescens with orange-pink sides.

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