Common Bluetail
(Ischnura elegans)

The Common Bluetail is one of the commonest and most abundant damselfly species in Europe. Its range covers pretty much all of Europe, except for parts of Iberia (where it's replaced by the Iberian Bluetail), the North of Scandinavia, and some Mediterranean islands (where it's replaced by the Island or Oasis Bluetails). Ischnura elegans is a small and slender damselfly. Its main distinguishing features include the black abdomen which in males and some females carries a striking blue tail-light on S8 (while in some other female colour forms S8 is rusty brown), the bi-coloured pterostigma in the male's forewings, and the variety in the female colour forms (for examples of the five colour forms, see our photographs).

For an overview of the Common Bluetail's distribution in Europe, hover your mouse pointer over the map symbol .
With the authors' permission we have based this map on data published in Kalkman et al. (2010).
Legend: Red = Occurs, White = Doesn't occur; Purple = Extinct; Yellow = Vagrant.

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