Scarce Blue Tailed Damselfly (Ischnura pumilio)

The Scarce Blue Tailed Damselfly

These images were taken in Hampshire's New Forest. After a detailed search of the area, an isolated pocket of perhaps ten males were located.

This damselfly lived up to its name. It is not common and is restricted to some very specific habitat. They were resident in a very boggy area that was grazed by both cattle and horses which kept the bank side vegetation very low, a requirment of this species in some locations. This species can be seen from early June until late August and sometimes into early September.

The male Scarce Blue Tailed Damselfly can easily be confused with the Common Blue Tail which is generally slightly larger but not exclusively so. The main identifying feature between the two species are the blue segements near the abdomen's tip.

In the Common Blue Tail segment eight is all blue with segment nine being black. In the Scarce Blue Tailed variety segment nine is blue with about a third of segment eight. Differentiating both species apart can be challenging.

The female is green in colour with a black abdomen, immatures are bright orange.