Small outdoor insectaries as a tool for lifetime studies on damselflies

Damselflies are suitable subjects for examination of a variety of biological questions, but most research has been carried out in the field. Several questions are hard to test because of the uncontrolled conditions inherent in field studies. This can be circumvented by studying populations in semi-natural outdoor insectaries. We assessed the suitability of such insectaries by comparing the survival and adult behaviour of Ischnura elegans (Vander Linden) in insectaries and in the field. Our results showed that damselflies behaved differently under experimental conditions. Nevertheless, outdoor insectaries can be regarded as a valuable tool to elucidate questions concerning life history traits since they offer the possibility to eleminate predation, emi- and immigration and hidden life.