Coenagrion puella (Linnaeus, 1758)

Small damselfly (50 mm maximum wingspan). Males alternate black and blue in their coloration and feature, on the 2^nd abdominal segment, a typical horseshoe-shaped mark, not linked to the black line of the next abdominal segment (sort of a “U” mark). Females are green-bluish, with an almost completely black abdomen in posterior view.

It flies from May to August and overwinters in a larval stadium lasting about one year. 

Very various. Usually still waters, but sometimes also the streaming ones. It can be observed both in the plain and in the mountains, up to rather high altitudes. 

One of the commonest species in Europe, with northern limit on southern Scandinavia. In the Cuneo region it is widespread in plain and hill wetlands: with Enallagma cyathigerum it can be found even in some bogs and lakes beyond 2000 meters above sea level.