By Stephen Kirkup.

Emerald damselfly

(Lestes sponsa)

Gaelic: Cruinneag Uaine

Adult male

Where to look

A common species in the UK, they can be seen throughout our region both in upland and lowland areas. They favour smaller, shallower bodies of still water that are well vegetated.

When to look

The numbers of adults peak in late summer, so August is a good month for spotting these beautiful small damselflies. Although only 35-39mm in total length, they are well worth getting up close to, their largely metallic green bodies are attractive, sparkling jewels in the summer sun.

Life cycle

The female adults insert their eggs into the stems of emergent pond plants. The female often starting above water and lowering herself until sometimes completely submerged. The eggs overwinter and then in the following spring the larvae (or nymph) emerges to live beneath the water surface. Many species of dragonfly/damselfly larvae can take one to two years to develop (even five years in the case of golden-ringed dragonfly), moulting many times before emerging from the water to become the familiar flying adult. However, emerald damselflies have a very short period as larvae, usually just two to three months. They are active and ferocious predators and grow rapidly, passing through a number of larval stages before emerging as adults during June, July and August.

Emerald damselfly nymph .
Courtesy of the ‘Field Guide to the larvae & exuviae of British dragonflies’ by Steve Cham ©
The exuviae (shed skin) from which the adults have emerged.
A just-emerged adult. The exuviae can be seen above the head. The wings are yet to unfold and the body has little colour.
When ready to become adults, the larvae crawl out of the water, usually using the stalks of emergent vegetation
Teneral female
Note the spot at the edge of the wing (bottom right corner of image) is cream coloured, this will darken with age.
Although this female is still an immature, the wing spot looks a little darker, so she is a little bit older.
Not long emerged adults, known as tenerals. In these images, the wings are pumped up and fully formed but the adult colouration is still developing.
These are full-coloured adult males. Both are showing a lot of pruinescence, this is a powder blue waxy coating that can develop as adults get older and make parts of male emerald damselflies very blue!

During summer adults mate and lay eggs.

Mating in dragonflies and damselflies is unique. The male grasps a female by the neck using claspers at the tip of his abdomen. The female curls the tip of of her abdomen up to the male for sperm to be transferred. In emerald damselflies, the male and female will stay in this configuration (often known as ‘the wheel’) throughout egg laying, thereby stopping any attention from other males.

Male (top of image) and female mating. The ‘wheel’ configuration
In this image the female is inserting eggs into the plant stem above the water surface
The male will stay with the female as she inserts eggs into emergent plant stems, in this instance now below the surface.

Male and female inserting eggs into emergent vegetation
More egg laying, this time with both male and female ending up completely underwater.
Adult emerald damselflies. Male top, female bottom
Adult male on Scots pine
Male on creeping soft grass (Holcus mollis)

All images* and videos by Susan Kirkup and Stephen Kirkup ©

(*Emerald damselfly nymph Courtesy of the ‘Field Guide to the larvae & exuviae of British dragonflies’ by Steve Cham ©)

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