Pond Life 4 - Damselflies

Violet dancer and Eastern forktail

Around the edge of the pond, frequently hovering within the foliage, damselflies occupy a niche parallel to their heftier cousins the dragonflies that patrol the open air.

Damselflies catch and eat small insects. Often they pick their prey off low vegetation with their spiny legs.

Lilypad clubtail

At rest, most damselflies fold their wings together above their bodies.


Spotted spreadwing

An exception to this characteristic is the family of spreadwings, which hold their wings slightly apart when perched during daylight, at an angle away from their bodies. 

A Fragile forktail on a water lily pad

A damselfly's eyes are distinctively spherical, smaller and more widely separated from each other than on a dragonfly, whose eyes overlap. 

A male Familiar bluet

Male damselflies are often brightly colored. The absolute identification of species, however, may depend on close examination of patterns at the tip of the tail.


An unidentified female damselfly

Females are usually plainer, cryptically colored, and harder to identify.

An adult male Slender spreadwing

A damselfly's membranous fore and hind wings are similar in appearance. They are strengthened by longitudinal veins linked by many cross-veins. These are filled with a fluid analogous to blood that circulates in direct contact with its tissues.

A pair of Slender spreadwings at an early stage of mating

This mating pair will form a shape known as a "heart" or "wheel", the male clasping the female at the back of the head, the female curling her abdomen down to pick up sperm at the base of the male's abdomen. The pair may remain together with the male still clasping the female while she lays eggs within the tissue of plants in or near water using a robust ovipositor.

A probable Slender spreadwing emerging in adult form

Damselfly nymphs molt repeatedly during their underwater lives. This one has at last crawled out of the water, fixed itself to a water lily blossom, and undergone metamorphosis to adulthood. After its skin split down the back it emerged to inflate its wings and abdomen.