Odonata ID help needed (1 Viewer)

[David_]

Hi,

I took some pictures of some odonata this morning at a pond in a park in my neighborhood in Düsseldorf, Germany. Could you help me to identify them?

• I think the first two pictures are blue-tailed damselflies. Is this correct?
• For picture 3 I have no idea at all. Any idea what it is?
• For pictures 4 and 5 I initially thought immature female scarce blue-tailed damselfly but my field guide says "female never with teil-light" so probably something else. Any idea?
• Last 3 pictures were taken yesterday with my smartphone so sorry for the poor image quality. I think this is a black-tailed skimmer, is this correct?

By the way: the 3 last pictures shows the result of uncontrolled population growth of canada and egyptian goose helped by people feeding them. This small park had 73 canada goose and 14 Egyptian goose (plus around 50 mallards) the last time I counted (this was before breeding season).

 

[pdwinter]

Yes 1 and 2 male Blue-tailed Damselfly
3,4 and 5 - female Blue-tailed Damselfly - mature form rufescens-obsoleta
6,7,8 - Male Black-tailed Skimmer

 

[David_]

Thank you!

female Blue-tailed Damselfly - mature form rufescens-obsoleta

Just as I thought I am getting better at identifying damselflies this brought me back to beginner level. I spend more than 30 minutes with Dijkstra‘s Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe and couldn‘t figure this out.

 

[David_]

@pdwinter : One more question regarding rufescens-obsoleta. Do they get a darker color as they get older? The one one picture 3 seems a lot darker than the other one (also doesn‘t have a tail-light).

 

[pdwinter]

Thank you!


Just as I thought I am getting better at identifying damselflies this brought me back to beginner level. I spend more than 30 minutes with Dijkstra‘s Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe and couldn‘t figure this out.

It is called 'C-type' mature in Dijkstra

 

[David_]

It is called 'C-type' mature in Dijkstra

Thanks!

 

[pdwinter]

@pdwinter : One more question regarding rufescens-obsoleta. Do they get a darker color as they get older? The one one picture 3 seems a lot darker than the other one (also doesn‘t have a tail-light).

Yes - they get darker as they get older but quite often by the time they have gone dark they also are muddy from ovipositing so it's a bit difficult to see. Attached what I would think of as a typical mature C-type

 

[David_]

Thanks again. This really is really helpful!