I spotted this beautiful female Turquoise Bluet damselfly (Enallagma divagans) on 27 May as I was exploring the edge of the woods adjacent to a small pond in Prince William County, Virginia. While I was out in the field, I recognized that it was a bluet, but could not determine its species. Even when I returned home and consulted resources in print and on-line, I quick became confused as I assesed the relative size of the eyespots on the the top of the damselfly’s head, the width of the occipital bars (the band that joins the eyespots), and the placement and size of the blue areas on the abdomen (the “tail”).
Fortunately I am a member of several Facebook groups focused on dragonflies and damselflies and the experts in those groups came to my rescue and identified this as a female Turquoise Bluet, a species that I had never before encountered. I was happy that I was able to capture a lot of detail in my photo and encourage you to click on it to see those details. For reference, Turquoise Bluets are 1-1.4 inches (25-36 mm) in length.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
What an exquisite creature, Mike, and the details you’ve captured are amazing! It’s amazing enough to me that you knew it was a bluet, not to speak of the specific species.
Thanks. American bluets are the largest genus of damselflies in North America and they are often the most familiar, conspicuous, and numerous damselflies in our area. Most of them, as their name suggest, are some combination of blue and black, though there are some that are not blue at all, like the curiously named Orange Bluet. Just to make things more interesting, some damselflies other than bluets are blue in color. Some damselflies I can identify pretty easily, but there are a whole bunch that are problematic. It is roughly equivalent with the problems that I have identifying some sparrows.
☺️
After all these years of photographing these little guys, it must feel good to see a new one.
Beauteous! And so nice for you to find one you had not garnered before!
With damselflies, I am never sure if it is the case that I have never seen it before or that I have never correctly identified it before. 🙂
Well done in the new sighting… always exciting.
Thanks, Chris. Of course it is especially exciting when I know when I am shooting that I have something new and different–the celebration is a little more muted whenI realize it only later when reviewing the shots or when someone else has to tell me what it is. 🙂
Wow! Wow! What a Creator!!
Very nice Mike! I have given up trying to ID the Damsels!!
Thanks, Reed. I definitely rely on the help of others with damselflies and often with dragonflies too.