Damselflies are smaller than dragonflies and hold their wings together behind the abdomen rather than out sideways.

Statistics
The azure damselfly has a body length of 30mm.

Physical description
Males are bright blue and black with dark blue eyes. Females have similar markings to males except their colour varies between blue, yellow, green and white, and the black markings are often more extensive. When at rest, their wings are folded up behind the abdomen.

The aquatic larvae are small and green with three feather-like gills protruding from the rear of their abdomen.

Distribution
They are widespread in Britain and central Europe.

Habitat
Azure damselflies inhabit well-vegetated ponds, lakes and slow-moving rivers.

Diet
Adults feed on small flying insects. Larvae feed on small aquatic crustaceans and insects.

Behaviour
Damselflies are weak fliers compared to dragonflies. They rest and wait for an insect to approach and then fly rapidly to catch them in the air. They have large eyes which allow them to accurately pin-point the position of their prey, which is caught with the damselflys legs and eaten at rest.

This species usually stays close to the vegetation around the pond or lake and can be seen flying from May to September.

The larvae have extendable jaws on hinged arms (called a mask) that can be extended rapidly to catch prey.

Reproduction
Male azure damselflies cling onto the females during egg-laying. The eggs are laid in pairs on aquatic plant stems and the females will often submerge completely to do so. Larvae will live for one year underwater before emerging from the water to become a winged adult.

Conservation status
Azure damselflies are not listed as endangered on IUCN Red List.

Notes
There are several very similar species of the genus Coenagrion, which can only be distinguished by examination of differences in black markings and the shape of the plate at the top of the thorax (pronotum).