Plains Forktail

Ischnura damula · Order: Odonata · Family: Coenagrionidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Plains Forktail
Photo: John Rosford, CC BY

The plains forktail is a narrow-winged damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae. It lives in North America.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Ischnura damula, called the plains forktail, belongs to the narrow-winged damselfly group in Coenagrionidae.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its native range includes North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 13 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Utah, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Plains Forktail photo 2
Photo: Tom Kennedy, CC BY
Plains Forktail photo 3
Photo: Amber M. King, CC BY
Plains Forktail photo 4
Photo: Bob Nieman, CC BY
Plains Forktail photo 5
Photo: John Rosford, CC BY

Same family (Coenagrionidae)

Eastern ForktailEastern ForktailIschnura verticalisBlue-tailed DamselflyBlue-tailed DamselflyIschnura elegansFragile ForktailFragile ForktailIschnura positaAzure DamselflyAzure DamselflyCoenagrion puellaFamiliar BluetFamiliar BluetEnallagma civileCommon Blue DamselflyCommon Blue DamselflyEnallagma cyathigerum

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ischnura_damula

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.