I was excited on Friday to capture this image of a colorful male Eastern Forktail damselfly (Ischnura verticalis) as I was wandering about at Occoquan Regional Park in Lorton, Virginia. I love the color combination of the light green thorax and the turquoise accents near the tip of the abdomen.
Generally when I see these little damselflies they are perched flat on the ground or on vegetation close to the ground—this slightly elevated perch made it a bit easier for me to get a good shot of its entire body. In case you are curious about the size of this damselfly, Eastern Forktails are only 0.8-1.3 inches (20-33 mm) in length, so you have to look really carefully to spot one.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Funny how it’s a turquoise/green colour at the head-end and appears to have a splash of poster-blue paint on the rear end! Intriguing!
A lot of damselflies have that shade of blue–in fact, there is a whole family known as bluets, though not all of them are blue. I remember being mystified when I hear that one species was called an Orange Bluet, which sounded like a contradiction in terms. (Here is a link to a posting with a photo of and Orange Bluet–https://michaelqpowell.com/2014/08/23/orange-bluet/)
Incredibly orange, almost like neon!
I also noticed that the Gossamer Damselfly that is found in New Zealand has a similar pattern of green at the head-end and a splash of blue at the tail-end, though the coloration of the rest of the body is a bit different. The Latin name of “your” species indicates that it is from the same genus of damselflies (known as forktails) as “my” damselfly. (https://inaturalist.nz/taxa/202061-Ischnura-aurora-aurora)
Very similar, that’s a nice surprise! I don’t recall ever seeing one like that which is a pity .. it’s pretty 🙂
ps. for some reason I can’t leave a ‘like’ on this post, just keeps on disappearing. Don’t remember that happening before! I give up.
It shows up with your like icon, so something worked eventually. WordPress has been somewhat temperamental recently. 🙂
Yes, after a break I tried doing the like through Reader and it got accepted. Perseverance pays off eventually!
I love the way it’s hanging on.
I love the bright green and blue! This is a great close-up shot.👍
Thanks, Suzanne. I really love my macro lens, because of the amount of detail it can reveal under the right conditions.
Very nice Mike! Enjoyed seeing your damsel image!
Thanks, Reed.
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Wow those colors really pop! No camouflage in the sticks there 🙂
The only thing that allows them to “hide” is their tiny size–not too many people look closely enough to see the beautiful colors.