Only two British damselflies have coloured wings, and in this one a broad inky band crosses the outer part of each male wing like a thumbprint
Banded demoiselle — the other is the beautiful demoiselle, whose male wings are coloured throughout.
Nature · Insects & other invertebrates
Banded demoiselle
Flies May–August · body length about 45 mm
Calopteryx splendens — Calopterygidae (demoiselles), suborder Zygoptera
A large metallic damselfly of slow lowland rivers, and one of only two British damselflies with coloured wings. The male has a metallic blue-green body and a broad dark blue-black band across the outer part of each wing, like an inky thumbprint; the female is metallic green with translucent pale green wings. Its flight is the giveaway — a loose, fluttering, butterfly-like beat quite unlike the darting of a blue damselfly — and males display to females from waterside vegetation.
How to spot them
- ▸Male: metallic blue-green body with a broad dark blue-black band across the outer part of each wing
- ▸Female: metallic green body with translucent pale green wings and a small white spot near the wingtip
- ▸Loose, fluttering, butterfly-like flight low over the water
- ▸Slow-flowing lowland rivers and streams, particularly with muddy bottoms
- ▸A damselfly, so the wings are folded along the body at rest and the eyes are set well apart
How to know it
Flutters loosely over a slow, muddy-bottomed river like a small butterfly, quite unlike a darting blue damselfly
Banded demoiselle — flight action is the best field character.
Its female is metallic green with translucent pale green wings and a small white spot near the tip
Banded demoiselle female; the beautiful demoiselle's female has brown-tinged wings.
Its generic name means 'beautiful wing' and its epithet 'shining'
Banded demoiselle — Calopteryx splendens.
First recorded in Scotland in 2002, and still expanding its British range
Banded demoiselle, per the British Dragonfly Society.
American photographs labelled as this insect are usually the ebony jewelwing, a species that has never crossed the Atlantic
Banded demoiselle — Calopteryx maculata is a New World species and does not occur in Europe.
Quick-fire facts
- •Calopteryx splendens: Greek kalos (beautiful) and pteryx (wing), with Latin splendens, 'shining'
- •British Dragonfly Society: about 45 mm long, of slow-flowing lowland streams and rivers, especially those with muddy bottoms
- •It and the beautiful demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) are the only British damselflies with coloured wings; in the beautiful demoiselle's male the wings are coloured throughout, not banded
- •It is common in Wales and most of England but scarce in the north; first recorded in Scotland in 2002
- •Males hold small territories on bankside vegetation and perform fluttering courtship flights in front of females
- •Threats listed by the British Dragonfly Society include pollution, over-shading, intensive dredging and over-abstraction
- •Damselflies are the Zygoptera and dragonflies the Anisoptera; both belong to the order Odonata
- •Beware online searches: the ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) of North America is often misidentified as this species
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Sources
- British Dragonfly Society — Banded Demoiselle
- Paul D. Brock — Britain's Insects: A Field Guide to the Insects of Great Britain and Ireland