English name:  Common Bluetail / Blue-tailed damselfly

Size:  Medium damselfly (3-3.5 cm).
 

Habitat:  In all kinds of water. Mainly with rich vegetation and low acidity.

Distribution: Widespread but fragmented across the whole of Europe and Asia

In Israel it is very common in the north of the country and in the center, relatively rare in the south. The most common bluetail and probably the only one in Israel outside the Syrian-African Rift.

Season:  Flies throughout the year (according to data from Turkey).  

Identification marks:
Male-  The sides of the thorax are blue or green, the shoulder stripes (antehumeral) are usually narrow and sometimes even absent.
The upper part of the abdomen is dark, the eighth abdominal segment is entirely blue.
In the second abdominal segment, the transition between black and green/blue is straight, not wavy.
Above the thorax near the head there is a prominent "spike".

Females- in the bluetail genus the females are very similar and distinguishing between them is difficult and not always possible.
The female of the elegant bluetail has 5 color morphs:

Similar species:
Male- all members of the bluetail genus, as well as the Nile river cruiser, are very similar to one another, and one needs to look closely to identify with certainty.