Calopteryx virgo

Beautiful demoiselle
Male
Female
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Odonata
Family:	Calopterygidae
Genus:	Calopteryx
Species:	C. virgo
Binomial name
Calopteryx virgo (Linnaeus, 1758)

The beautiful demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) is a European damselfly. It is often found along fast-flowing waters where it is most at home.

Females lay up to 300 eggs at a time on emergent or floating plants, often on water-crowfoot. Like the banded demoiselle, they often submerge to do so. The eggs hatch after around 14 days. Again, like the banded demoiselle, the larva is stick-like with long legs and develops over a period of two years in submerged vegetation, plant debris or roots. They usually overwinter in mud or slime.

The larvae of the beautiful demoiselle develop over 10 to 12 stages, each of which takes place between a molt. The body length is variable and highly dependent on environmental conditions. The final stage (F-0-stage) larvae are 3.5 to 4.6 millimeters and weigh about 4 milligrams, slightly below the banded demoiselle. Apart from the larvae of the demoiselles are difficult to distinguish from each other, the apparent differences lie mainly in the bristles and the severity of the tracheal gills on their abdomen. Compared to other damselflies demoiselles larvae fall immediately on the other hand, due to their much shorter mean gill lamella.

The body of the larvae shows only a relatively small adjustment to the fast-flowing waters of their habitat. The body is not flattened but very slim and turning around, the legs are long and have its end with strong claws, with which it can be stated in the vegetation. Because they reside within the water body, but mainly in the quieter areas, the danger of being swept with the flow, is relatively low. If this happens, they clearly its long body and legs stretched as far as possible to get in touch with the vegetation or the substrate to come.

The male usually has much more extensive pigmentation on the wings than other Calopteryx species in its range: in the south east of its range (the Balkans and Turkey) the wings are entirely metallic blue while in other areas, there are clear areas at the base and tip of the wing. Immature insects often have much paler, browner wings. They have metallic blue-green bodies and blue-green eyes.

The female has dark brown iridescent wings, a white patch near the tip of the wings (called a pseudopterostigma) and a metallic green body with a bronze tip of the abdomen.

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Wikipedia