Damselfly larvae are rather more delicate than the larger dragonfly larvae.  They move through the water with a slow, but graceful, movement, by flexing their long, slim bodies from side to side, and using the caudal lamellae as paddles.  In order to keep balance, they need to splay out their legs.  With speed slow, and agility to turn quickly poor, swimming is not the best of ways for the larvae to catch prey or avoid predators.  They therefore tend to remain concealed in the plants whenever possible, blending in with the background, and hunting by night.  are strong but sluggish predators, making their ungainly way through the plants or sitting on the bottom of the pond.  They take smaller prey than dragonfly larvae, and will also feed on dead matter.

Notice the green colouring that helps the larvae to blend in with algae and plants.  The three appendages at the back are called the caudal lamellae.  They are not a tail, as you might imagine, but the insect's gills.

Like dragonfly larvae, they will guard their own space in the water, threatening an interloper by flexing their body, but rarely fighting.  Injuries from attack by predators or other larvae may result in the loss of one of the caudal lamellae or a leg, but these will usually be regenerated during the next moult.  After one to five years under the surface,  the larvae will leave the water, crawling up the stems of narrow reeds or plants. 

Early on a sunny morning, this damselfly steps free of it's final skin, known as an exuvia.  For several days prior to this, it would have had to surface to breathe air, and would have eaten very little.  It must rest and stretch its wings to their full extent before first flight. 

 

 

 

Two damsels, a small red and a common blue, perch together on a lily leaf.  In the centre of the leaf is the exuvia of the red one, which is still resting before flight. 

Above: The "new" wings are very delicate, and could be torn or damaged by even a rain drop. This teneral had emerged or rested on fern close to a waterfall, and must have been splashed with water.  Sadly, the wings were damaged too much for it to survive. 

Below:  A blue tailed female damsel teneral, resting in the sun.  Notice the huge eyes - they grew bigger during the final metamorphosis, and the insipid colour.  Within a few days, the colour will deepen, and the wings lose the sparkling shimmer that they first have.  

Once the damsel is fully mature, it will seek a mate.  Males will usually fly back and forward over the water, trying to attract a female.  The females will wait in the plants, or even in trees, until they are ready to lay eggs, and will then respond to the male's courting display.

Above:  Click on this picture to see it larger and sharper.  A pair of common blue damselflies, the female is the slightly greenish colour.  Both damsel and dragonfly males will usually guard over their female while she lays her eggs, because another male may come along and replace the first one's sperm with its own. Most damsel males will actually hold the female with a small sucker on the end of their abdomen, as this one is.  The common blue damselfly lays its eggs in small clutches on a plant or an inanimate object such as a stone, as here, at water level.  The female clearly decides where to oviposit, the male merely holds her and follows.

Depending on the time of the year, and the weather, the eggs may take only take a few days to hatch, but it will be at least a year before these eggs become adult flies. 

But here, with new eggs that face a thousand threats,  this page closes, and the cycle of life begins again....

Click on the flying dragon to return to "Dragonfly Lifecycles"