Common and Rare - _TNY_5491
While visiting the island of Gällnö in the archipelago of Stockholm, Sweden, I happened upon this one which is somewhat rare.
It's a female common bluetail, (Ischnura elegans), also known as the blue-tailed damselfly.
But wait, how can it be "somewhat rare" with a name including "common"?
Well, the females of this species come in no less than five different colour forms (two immature and three mature ones). This particular one is as I understand it the rarest of them and was called Infuscans-obsoleta, but then it got changed into Rufescens-obsoleta which was more logical as it is a mature form of the immature rufescens one. Supposedly, it has changed another time, this time into "C-type Mature" which in my opinion is quite a lot less discriptive.
Common and Rare - _TNY_5491
While visiting the island of Gällnö in the archipelago of Stockholm, Sweden, I happened upon this one which is somewhat rare.
It's a female common bluetail, (Ischnura elegans), also known as the blue-tailed damselfly.
But wait, how can it be "somewhat rare" with a name including "common"?
Well, the females of this species come in no less than five different colour forms (two immature and three mature ones). This particular one is as I understand it the rarest of them and was called Infuscans-obsoleta, but then it got changed into Rufescens-obsoleta which was more logical as it is a mature form of the immature rufescens one. Supposedly, it has changed another time, this time into "C-type Mature" which in my opinion is quite a lot less discriptive.