May/June 2026 Paper 42

The southern damselfly, Coenagrion mercuriale, is a flying insect found in most of Europe.

Figure 7.1 shows a southern damselfly.

Complete the table below to show the classification of the southern damselfly.

The domain Eukarya includes the kingdoms Animalia and Plantae. Describe the differences between organisms in Animalia and Plantae.

Southern damselflies require areas of open vegetation with slow-flowing water in which to lay their eggs. • Damselfly eggs hatch into larvae within five weeks. • Damselfly larvae spend two years underwater before emerging as an adult. • Damselfly larvae eat other insect larvae and freshwater shrimps. • Adult damselflies live for only a few weeks. Southern damselfly numbers are decreasing and this species is listed as endangered in the UK. (i) Suggest possible reasons why the southern damselfly has become endangered in the UK.

The mark-release-recapture method has been used to estimate the population size of adult southern damselflies. Suggest why using this method to estimate the population size may be inaccurate.