Friday 11 May 2007

Red-eyed Damselfly (Erythromma najas)

OTHER NAMES: Large Redeye
Latin Etymology: Erythromma (?) najas ("snakes")
Adult Red-eyed Damselfly (subspecies E. n. najas) at Wellingborough, Northants - May 2011

Featured Subspecies: Erythromma najas najas
Length: 35mm  /  Wingspan: 50mm
UK Status: Not Evaluated IUCN Red List: Not Evaluated

Superficially similar to the blue tailed damselfly, as the name suggests, the main distinguishing feature is the red eyes. Care should be taken to carefully differentiate this species from the small red eyed damselfly which differs from it mainly in size and havign a black x mark on the tip of it's tail. I'm not precisely sure how common this species is - I only noticed this was a different species when I was sorting photos at home!

Related Species:
Order:
Odonata
Family: Coenagrionidae
Genus: Erythromma 
SUBSPECIES: E. n. najas, E. n. puellare

- Sighting Locations -
UNITED KINGDOM A fairly common resident species which is seen in Summer
 - A single individual seen at Summer Leys.

Further Notes: BirdForum Opus, IUCN Red List, RSPB, Wikipedia, Xeno-canto

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