Blue-tailed damselfly
Ischnura elegans (Vander Linden, 1820)
The blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans) is an insect in the family Coenagrionidae, placed in the order Odonata and the suborder Zygoptera. It is also called the Common bluetail or Common Ischnura, and its scientific name carries the authority (Vander Linden, 1820).
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Quick facts about the blue-tailed damselfly
On the IUCN Red List it is assessed globally as Least Concern (LC), which is not a threatened category.
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- 3 cm – 3.4 cmsrc for Length
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Invertivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- freshwater, wetlandsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Active
- By day (diurnal)src for Active
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the blue-tailed damselfly?
Photos of the blue-tailed damselfly
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the blue-tailed damselfly live?
Not recorded
What is the blue-tailed damselfly?
The blue-tailed damselfly or common bluetail (Ischnura elegans) is a damselfly, belonging to the family Coenagrionidae.
From the Wikipedia article “Blue-tailed damselfly” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blue-tailed_damselfly&oldid=1380346784), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the blue-tailed damselfly endangered?
The blue-tailed damselfly is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.
How is the blue-tailed damselfly classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classInsecta
- orderOdonata
- familyCoenagrionidae
- genusIschnura
- SpeciesIschnura elegans (Vander Linden, 1820)
Synonyms Agrion aglae, Agrion elegans, Agrion elegans, Agrion excelsa, Agrion ezonatum, Agrion hastulatum, Agrion magna, Agrion pupilla, Agrion rubens, Agrion rufescens, Agrion tuberculatum, Ischnura elegans, Ischnura elegans malikovae, Ischnura elegans subsp. ebneri, Ischnura elegans subsp. marquardti, Ischnura elegans subsp. mortoni, Ischnura elegans subsp. pontica, Ischnura lamellata, Ischnura ordosi
Other names and names in other languages (29)
- Common bluetailEnglish
- Common bluetailEnglish
- Common IschnuraEnglish
- Velika plavorepkaBosnian
- Llantió elegantCatalan
- šidélko většíCzech
- Ischnura CyffredinWelsh
- Mursen Dinlas GyffredinWelsh
- Mursennod Tinlas CyffredinWelsh
- Stor farvevandnymfeDanish
- Mangefarvet vandnymfeDanish
- Große PechlibelleGerman
- Agrion eleganteSpanish
- hoikkatytönkorentoFinnish
- Agrion élégantFrench
- cruinneag ghrinnScottish Gaelic
- cruinneagan grinnScottish Gaelic
- Donceliña eleganteGalician
- Velika moraCroatian
- Codazzurra comuneItalian
- kystvannymfeNorwegian Bokmål
- LantaarntjeDutch
- kystvassnymfeNorwegian Nynorsk
- Modri kresničarSlovenian
- Bishtbluja e zakonshmeAlbanian
- Velika crnotrba devicaSerbian
- allmän kustflicksländaSwedish
- blåsvansad flicksländaSwedish
- större kustflicksländaSwedish
Relatives of the blue-tailed damselfly
Other species in the same genus Ischnura.
Small bluetail
Ischnura pumilio
Marsh bluetail
Ischnura senegalensis
Common bluetail
Ischnura heterosticta
Golden dartlet
Ischnura aurora
Desert bluetail
Ischnura evansi
Island bluetail
Ischnura genei
CompareBlue-tailed damselfly vs Small bluetailBlue-tailed damselfly vs Marsh bluetailBlue-tailed damselfly vs Common bluetailBlue-tailed damselfly vs Golden dartlet
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the blue-tailed damselfly?
The blue-tailed damselfly is an insect in the dragonflies and damselflies group, belonging to the order Odonata and the suborder Zygoptera.
What is the scientific name of the blue-tailed damselfly?
Its scientific name is Ischnura elegans, placing it in the genus Ischnura.
Who named the blue-tailed damselfly and when?
The scientific name Ischnura elegans carries the authority (Vander Linden, 1820).
Is the blue-tailed damselfly endangered?
No. It is assessed globally as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
What family does the blue-tailed damselfly belong to?
It belongs to the family Coenagrionidae, within the superfamily Coenagrionoidea.
What other names does the blue-tailed damselfly have?
It is also called the Common bluetail and the Common Ischnura.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/blue-tailed-damselfly
“Blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/blue-tailed-damselfly.
@misc{blue_tailed_damselfly_2026,
title = {Blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/blue-tailed-damselfly},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}