Dark Bluet
(Coenagrion armatum)

A Northern and Eastern European species, the Dark Bluet (Coenagrion armatum) takes its scientific name from the male's huge lower appendages, which are easily as long as S10 and are covered with a whitish pruinescence. And its common name too is very apt; both the male and the female have an essentially black abdomen with only S1-3 and S8-9 light blue. In that sense they display the same 'tail light' normally associated with Ischnura species. And in terms of their size, too, they are more similar to Ischnura elegans than to e.g. Coenagrion puella. The (smaller!) male's thorax is a light green-blue, while the noticeably larger female is green when mature or a pinkish orange when immature. We photographed Coenagrion armatum at the shallow, swampy end of a large lake in Finland with a very rich and dense vegetation.

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