Friday 25 August 2023

Common Bluetail

Common Bluetail (Ischnura senegalensis, 褐斑异痣蟌).
Throughout the summer, if one searches around the bushes and forested areas adjacent to water one will often find a common bluetail damselfly resting on a leaf. Sometimes the females have a yellow ochre thorax but usually it is blue or bluish green on both sexes. They all have khaki yellow stripes running along the sides of their abdomens for five or four-and-a-half segments terminating in an eighth azure blue segment, a penultimate segment of black and blue, and a final short segment with black on the dorsum and subtle yellow stripes on the sides. They seem placid but are hunters in their domain.