Caloptéryx éclatant
(Calopteryx splendens)

The Banded Demoiselle is a large damselfly. Like all European Calopteryx species, its flight is fluttery and butterfly-like and - uniquely among European odonata - Calopteryx males engage in a dazzling display flight to attract females into their territories. The Banded Demoiselle is a common species throughout much of Europe but is absent from the South of France and Iberia (where it's replaced by C. xanthostoma) and from most of Scandinavia. Here in Italy it's a very common species which tends to occur in large numbers. Unlike the Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo), Calopteryx splendens has a preference for fairly wide, slow-flowing and sunny streams and rivers with a reasonably good water quality. The species' most distinctive features include the yellowish-white underside of the last three segments of the male's abdomen, the dark band which runs through his wings and which extends from the node almost all the way through to the wing tip, and the female's all-green body and wings with their white pseudopterostigma.

Click a thumbnail to display a larger version (1050 x 700 pixels) of each picture. And then, if you'd like to get even closer, you can drag the ZoomBox from the top-left corner across the photograph.

Please note: you may have to refresh the photo window manually (by pressing F5 on your keyboard) for the ZoomBox to display correctly.