CreatureData

Black-faced skimmer

Libellula cyanea Fabricius, 1775

Status not recordeddragonflies

The black-faced skimmer (Libellula cyanea) is a species in the family Libellulidae, order Odonata. Recorded adults reach 4.35 cm in length. Source checklists list it for 1 country: United States.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the black-faced skimmer

Weight
Not recorded
Length
4.35 cm
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivore
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
freshwater, wetland
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the black-faced skimmer?

BLACK-FACED SKIMMER · LENGTH 4.35 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 4.35 cm, the recorded maximum length of the black-faced skimmer is about 2.6% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the black-faced skimmer live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The black-faced skimmer is listed for 1 country.

United States of America
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. United States

Why a country list is not a range map

Is the black-faced skimmer endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the black-faced skimmer classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classInsecta
  4. orderOdonata
  5. familyLibellulidae
  6. genusLibellula
  7. SpeciesLibellula cyanea Fabricius, 1775

Synonyms Libellula bistigma, Libellula quadrupla

Other names and names in other languages (1)
  • Spangled Skimmerroot

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the black-faced skimmer

Other species in the same genus Libellula.

Blue chaser

Libellula fulva

LibellulidaeNo free photo yet

Widow

Libellula luctuosa

LibellulidaeNo free photo yet

Red skimmer

Libellula saturata

LibellulidaeNo free photo yet

CompareBlack-faced skimmer vs Broad-bodied chaserBlack-faced skimmer vs Four-spotted chaserBlack-faced skimmer vs Blue chaserBlack-faced skimmer vs Widow

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the black-faced skimmer?

An adult black-faced skimmer measures 4.35 cm long, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the black-faced skimmer live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the black-faced skimmer for 1 country: United States. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

What kind of animal is the black-faced skimmer?

The black-faced skimmer (Libellula cyanea) belongs to the family Libellulidae in the order Odonata.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Black-faced skimmer (Libellula cyanea). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-faced-skimmer

MLA

“Black-faced skimmer (Libellula cyanea).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-faced-skimmer.

BibTeX
@misc{black_faced_skimmer_2026,
  title = {Black-faced skimmer (Libellula cyanea)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-faced-skimmer},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}