White-legged Damselflies

White-legged Damselfly, Colyton 22/06/2019 (Copyright T D Wright)

WL Damselfly, Colyton, 22/06/2019 (Copyright T D Wright)

I've often wondered if I was missing a trick locally as all these blue damselflies seem a bit tricky to me. I also thought that White-legged Damselflies only occurred on the Axe. This year however I finally looked at a photograph and thought I saw enough to seek confirmation from the 'Insect Nation' (apologies to Bill Bailey). Unfortunately I can't zoom these pictures up as much as I can on Twitter which is a shame. The close-ups revealed a thorax pattern very like WLD and some big fat hindlegs too. The Richard Lewington illustrations seem to be less strikingly blue though and even show greenish tones so I put it out there on Twitter and waited with baited breath for comments. To my great delight several accomplished entomologists immediately said WLD and I knew I'd got a Coly tick and evidence of breeding on my 'home' river. What a fantastic surprise!

White-legged Damselflies mating?, Colyton 22/06/2019 (Copyright T D Wright)