page_title: Enallagma cyathigerum
section_title: Lifecycles
hierarchical_section_title: Enallagma cyathigerum / Lifecycles
caption_attribution_description: English: Common blue damselflies (Enallagma cyathigerum) mating, Whitecross Green Wood, Oxfordshire - composite of 3 photos showing how the female swings her abdomen to initiate pairing.
context_page_description: Enallagma cyathigerum is a species found mainly between latitudes 40°N and 72°N; It is widely distributed in the Palearctic, and the Nearctic species Enallagma annexum was at one time considered to be synonymous with it. The species can reach a length of 32 to 35 mm. It is common in many different countries including Russia, Europe and South Korea. Damselflies are an important link between the health of the aquatic ecosystem and its response to climate change.
context_section_description: The lifecycle of this species begins in freshwater, they spend most of their time as larvae. The larval stage depends on the temperature, light, and the resource level. Once the temperatures drop the larvae can go into a state called diapause instead of dying. The damselflies that endure diapause effect the body size for the next season. Since these damselflies are flexible, they have two different lifecycles depending on latitude univoltine or semivoltine. The more north these damselflies are found, the more likely they are to be semivoltine. By being able to shift the lifecycle due to the conditions this allows for twice the amount of development time, so larger adults are typically found in more northern areas.
  Once the larvae emerge as adults between May to August they have a brief time to feed before they are to find a mate and reproduce the next generation of larvae. Once emerged, there is an estimated sex ratio of 1:1 within the colony, allows for mating within the colony to be less of a competition.
  During mating, the male clasps the female by her neck while she bends her body around to his reproductive organs – this is called a mating wheel. The pair flies together over the water and eggs are laid within a suitable plant, just below the surface. The eggs hatch and the larvae, called nymphs, live in the water and feed on small aquatic animals. Nymphs climb out of the water up a suitable stem to molt into damselflies.
caption: Female initiating mating (heterochrome female)
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