Tuesday, June 21, 2016

june jewels


When I'm lucky enough to see these damselflies
swooping and darting about like animated jewels,
it always stops me in my tracks.

The colors are incredible.
Dazzling.

I don't know much about insects,
so I did a little poking around online to find an ID for you.
It seems this is Calopteryx maculata or "ebony jewelwing."

I think "ebony-winged jewel" would better suit.
When they are in flight, their bodies glisten, green and blue,
while the wings are a black blur.

I am not fast enough to get a picture of a damselfly in flight,
but here is a glimpse of the wing/body color combination
during take-off:



Dragonflies, like this lovely visitor from last September,
tend to keep their wings open when they land:


Damselflies generally fold their wings when they are at rest:



But they don't seem to "rest" for very long!
For every image of a damselfly, I took two of a leaf or rock where a damselfly had been resting a nanosecond earlier.
I feel very lucky to have these images to share :)



~~~~~