Mes petites préférées.

Fines, élégantes, couleurs métallisées, un beau bleu, mâle et femelle…que demande le peuple !?
Nehalennia irene, Déesse paisible.

Nehalennia speciosa – the smallest damselfly in Europe

This post is dedicated for all our friends from the blog Libellules de France… :-).

We think, that you have never seen before this beautiful, amazing and so tiny damselfly in the wild. We were very lucky, that we found this small (body length only 20-25 mm!) creatures in our area, so we want to share it with you.

The Pygmy Damselfly occurs at the only one locality in the Opole province (this is our region), which we discovered in 2011. This small damselfly extinct in large areas, especially in western, central and southern Poland. At present it is relict, local and rare species, except for northern and partly eastern Poland even very rare. Restricted to single localities and their small concentrations. This is a stenotopic species. It inhabits acidic and poor in nutrients waters - pools and small lakes, as well as valleys and flooded parts in Sphagnum bogs and fens; exceptionally peat excavations. Requires abundant vegetation distinguished by its specific texture, with a leading role of selected Carex species (mainly Carex limosa and C. rostrata) and mosses (mainly Sphagnum).

male

male

male

male

male

female

female

female

female

female

pair in tandem

pair in tandem

pair in tandem

Greetings to all Odonata fans!

Michał and Piotr

Lien vers la redécouverte de l'espèce en France, dans une tourbière du Jura:
Link to the rediscovery of the species in France:
Decouverte-en-France-de-Nehalennia-speciosa.pdf