Eastern Dart Damselfly - Austroagrion watsoni
FAMILY COENAGRIONIDAE
- Male Eastern Dart Damselfly, body length 25mm
This page contains information and pictures about Eastern Dart Damselflies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
The Damselfly
Eastern Dart Damselflies are tiny damselflies. They can be found near running water or still water. They usually rest on the plants either in the middle of ponds or at the water edges. The pictures in this page are mostly taken at Wishart along Bulimba Creek and at the large ponds in Mt Coot-tha Botanic Garden.
- The male damselfly is brightly blue in colour with black pattern on abdomen. It looks similar to the Common Bluetail and Blue Sprite except Eastern Dart Damselfly is smaller and with a blue bar on top of their eyes instead of two blue dots. There are two black squares on its blue tail while Common Bluetail and Blue Sprite's tails are all blue.
The male Eastern Dart Damselfly has its blue thorax with black marks. Its long and slender abdomen is black in colour with blue rings. There is the blue tip at the end of abdomen. The female looks the same as the male except pale blue to grayish-green in colour.
- Male and female Eastern Dart Damselflies in tandem position. More information about damselfly reproduction can be found on the Mating Behaviour pages.
- We took the above picture in Brisbane Botanic Garden on Oct 2004. The damselfly had just came out from last moulting. It was pale green in colour, its body was weak and could not fly properly. Its body would be harden and it would turn into the adult colour within hours. Before this, the young damselfly was quite vulnerable. The pale green colour helped it hiding among plants during this dangerous period.
- Wings of Eastern Dart Damselfly
