Banded demoiselle
The banded demoiselle is a big, sparkly damselfly that lives by slow streams. The male has a shiny blue-green body and a dark blue band across each wing, like he is wearing a fancy cape. The female is metallic green with pale green, see-through wings.
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Fun facts
To win a female, the male opens his wings and does a little dance in the air.
A female can lay up to 10 eggs a minute for 45 minutes. Sometimes she even dives underwater to put them on plants.
Its larva looks like a stick with very long legs and lives in the water for usually two years.
In winter the larva hides buried in the mud at the bottom.
Young males have dark brown wing bands that turn blue-black as they grow up.
Most asked questions about Banded demoiselle
?Is the banded demoiselle a dragonfly?
It is a damselfly, a slimmer cousin of the dragonflies. It holds its wings together over its back when it rests.
?Where can you see a banded demoiselle?
Along slow streams, quiet rivers and canals, especially with lush plants on the banks.
?How big is a banded demoiselle?
It is up to about 5 centimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Calopteryx splendens
- Named by
- Harris, 1780
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Calopterygidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Calopterygidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Banded demoiselle (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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