Mating rituals of the common damselfly

In response to Mr Crosby's letter on July 27 regarding my photo of two common blue damselflies locked together.
Large red damselfliesLarge red damselflies
Large red damselflies

At the end of his letter he said he was only joking so I’m sure he knows what is happening in the photograph.

So for anyone who doesn’t know, the male damselfly will hold the female at the back of her head during mating and if disturbed they will fly off still coupled together, so a certain amount of caution has to be applied when photographing them.

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As in most cases of wildlife subjects, whether it be birds, butterflies, dragonflies or whatever, the male is usually the more brightly coloured of the two as can be seen in the above photograph of large red damselflies which appear to be a little bit rarer than the common blue damselfly.

Les Cornthwaite

by email