Leijpark013

@leijpark013 · 14 Feb 2022

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Leijpark 013 Azure damselfly.

#leijpark013   #azuredamselfly

Published by Thierry P. Dinjens · Yesterday at 6:02 PM ·
Damselflies. They capture the imagination; they look like helicopters, elves, little dragonflies. And often they are brilliant blue. That's nice, but it does saddle us with a problem: How do we keep all those damselflies apart? Fortunately, each species has certain unique features. That is why it was quite easy to name the magnificent damselfly we encountered in the Leijpark. This went like this: Every insect, as well as a damselfly, is made up of so-called 'segments'. These are the building blocks that make up an insect. In the case of a damselfly, these segments form a head, a chest piece and a hindbody. With blue damselflies, all these segments show the colors black and blue, but always slightly different. With this damselfly, we see two important features: three blue segments in the abdomen are the same length. That in combination with the black capital U on the second segment of the abdomen (seen under the chest piece) make this blue damselfly (of which there are so a number of) the Azure damselfly.
The color azure is the blue of the sky. The name comes from the Persian word 'Lāžward'. That's what the city was called where the azure stone (also called glaze stone) was originally found.
We also know right away that we are dealing with a male here. The females are teal.
This damselfly loves stagnant to weak running water, preferably covered with aquatic plants. On those plants they lay their eggs and as soon as they hatch, the larvae live underwater and eat everything small enough and swim along. We think of little fish, water woodlice, mosquito larvae, that kind of little stuff. Once ready to become an adult insect, the larvae go to the surface of the puddle, climb into a plant stem and there they molt. Unlike butterflies, they don't make a cocoon. They molt and only then do wings come to the damselfly. Cows are a threat; if the cattle graze near the water, there are few plant stems and the larvae are more likely to fall prey to birds. Fortunately, there are no cows in or around the Leijpark.
Those plant stems are also used for a different purpose by the mature Aceid Damselfly. When it gets night and the damselflies rest, they seek out a stem that is wide enough for their body to hide behind it, but thin enough so that their big eyes, which sit on either side of the head, protrude along the stem on both sides. This way, they stand out less well for predators, but keep an eye on the whole environment themselves. In the pitch dark, that's not going, but with the help of some moonlight, they come a long way. Damselflies don't sleep the way we sleep. They lower their body temperature, giving them some kind of sluminess. They are less responsive, but are never, like us, completely in dreamland. That is far too dangerous for an animal that is on the menu with so many predators.
The adult insect has a few weeks to hunt and mate, and then the cycle starts again.
A beautiful insect, a fearsome hunter of flies and mosquitoes and a master of the art of hiding. The Azure Damselfly, as blue as the high sky itself.