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Sticker of Ornate bluet
Bug card No. 3187 of 4,939

Ornate bluet

Coenagrion ornatum
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsDragonflies and damselfliesPonds, rivers and shores6 legs

The ornate bluet is a slim blue damselfly with black markings. The male has a tiny black pattern near the front of its tail that looks like a wine glass or a trident. It only flies for a short time each summer.

Lives in
Europe and western Asia, mostly the Balkans, at small sunny streams and ditches
Length
3 to 3.1 cm (1.2 to 1.2 in)
Wingspan
1.7 to 2.4 cm (0.67 to 0.94 in)
Top speed
about 9.4 km/h (5.8 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Damselflies have no sting and do not bother people.
What does it eat?
It catches tiny flying insects. Its babies live under water in streams and hunt even smaller water animals.
For real!Photo of Ornate bluet
Picture by Christian Fischer. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Ornate bluet about 3.1 cm long (1.2 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)

How wide are its wings?

Ornate bluet wings about 2.4 cm tip to tip (0.94 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 5 grains of rice in a rowwings as wide as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 40 secondsmoves 84 times its own body length every second

How big is Ornate bluet compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Further down its tail, the male has black marks shaped like spear tips.

2

The grown-ups fly only from May to July or the middle of August.

3

It likes shallow, slow streams in the sun, and it stays away from water with thick plants on the banks.

4

In Europe it often lives in farm ditches where people mow the banks and clean the bottom.

5

Dirty water has made it rarer in many parts of Europe.

you asked

Most asked questions about Ornate bluet

?Is the ornate bluet dangerous?

No. Damselflies have no sting and are harmless to people.

?Where does the ornate bluet live?

In Europe and western Asia, mostly in the Balkans, and east as far as Iran and Turkmenistan.

?How big is the ornate bluet?

It is about 3 centimetres long, about as long as a paper clip.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Coenagrion ornatum
Group
Dragonflies and damselflies
Family
Coenagrionidae
Classification
Insecta > Odonata > Coenagrionidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Coenagrion ornatum (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Christian Fischer. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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