We've already been introduced to the female Rainbow Bluet (Enallagma antennatum) with its unique and distinctive oval blue mark centered on S9.
The male isn't much to look at in dorsal view. Much like the female it's mostly black with the exception of the completely pale blue S9, and easily mistaken for a male Eastern Forktail. How many times have I overlooked these small damselflies, which are actually quite common in the vegetation just under the dam at the walking bridge spanning the Moira River?
In lateral view the male makes up for its diminutive stature on an aesthetic level ... it is literally almost every color of the rainbow. It's always a treat to find something like this, new to me, if not to science. The price of many of the photos in this blog was standing for hours under a hot sun, soaked muddy feet pursuing odonates through their natural habitat, and blundering into poison ivy, often with nothing to show for all the effort but leech, mosquito and deerfly bites. Was it worth it? You bet!
The afternoon light was better when this male was photographed along the bank of the Moira River at the "Point".
