Bluets

Enallagma

Bluets are tiny, colorful dragonflies that love to flutter around ponds and streams. They have beautiful blue bodies and delicate wings that sparkle in the sunlight.

Habitat: Wetlands

Appearance

The Bluets is a slender damselfly, often brilliantly colored with patterns of bright blue and black along its body and abdomen. Unlike dragonflies, it holds its two pairs of clear wings together over its back when resting, giving it a delicate, needle-like appearance.

KingdomAnimaliaPhylumArthropodaClassInsectaOrderOdonataFamilyCoenagrionidaeGenusEnallagma

Bluets

Interesting facts

Baby Bluets, called nymphs, live underwater for months or even years before transforming into adults!

Bluets have huge compound eyes that see almost all around them at once!

Many Bluet species have distinct black markings on their blue tails, helping scientists tell them apart!

When a Bluet lands, it often holds its wings folded together, unlike a dragonfly that spreads them flat.

Special abilities

Bluets can fly with incredible agility and speed because of their strong wings and keen eyesight, that helps them snatch tiny insects right out of the air.

Bluets has special external gills called caudal lamellae as larvae, that helps them breathe underwater while they hunt smaller aquatic creatures.

Bluets can fly connected to a mate in a unique 'tandem' position, which helps them defend their partner and lay eggs safely.

Measurements & details

Wingspan: 25-50 mm
Size: 20-40 mm
Lifespan: 14-42 days
Flight Speed: 10 km/h
Leg Count: 6

Diet & Feeding

Bluets are aerial insect hunters, snatching small flying bugs mid-air.

Age differences: Larvae (nymphs) are aquatic predators, eating small invertebrates; adults hunt flying insects.

Primary Foods

mosquitoes
gnats
small flies
midges

Foraging Method

Pursuit

Ecological connections

eaten by

Largemouth Bass

Micropterus salmoides

Larval Bluets are a food source for freshwater fish.

eaten by

Eastern Kingbird

Tyrannus tyrannus

Adult Bluets are prey for various insect-eating birds.

hunts

Common House Mosquito

Culex pipiens

Adult Bluets actively hunt and consume mosquitoes.

hunts

Non-biting Midge

Chironomus plumosus

Bluets prey on various small aquatic midges.

Traits

Social

Social animals live in organized groups, cooperating for survival benefits such as foraging, defense, and raising offspring.

Aerial

Aerial creatures spend a significant portion of their lives airborne, utilizing flight for various activities such as hunting, migration, or nesting.

Colorful

Colorful describes organisms or objects displaying a wide range of bright and distinct colors.

Insectivorous

This trait identifies organisms whose diet primarily consists of insects and other small invertebrates.

Wetland

This habitat trait identifies species found in wetlands, which are areas of land saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, including marshes, swamps, and bogs.