The Wildlife of
Croome

 
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Damselflies - The Small Red-eyed Damselfly

First seen on Thursday 6th July 2017 at Croome

The Small Red-eyed damselfly is, as the name suggests, a smaller version of the Red-eyed damselfly. It is around 4mm smaller, but unless you see two together, this difference is not really noticeable. They have the same blue body and red eyes (although not quite such a strong red), so you have to look more carefully to see the difference. The most obvious difference for me is the blue segments on the abdomen (its tail). If you look at the second pair of photos, the red-eyed damselfly has two blue segments, but the small red-eyed damselfly has an third half/wedge-shaped blue segment, and often the tip is bent upwards.

Small Red-eyed damselflies appear about a month after their cousins. These were found on the river (near the house) and in the pond in the Walled Garden. Interestingly, their coenagrion spur (black half line on the side) is often an exclamation mark!