Beautiful Demoiselle

Calopteryx virgo · Order: Odonata · Family: Calopterygidae

Also called: Beautiful Agrion, Beautiful Damselfly, Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly, Demoiselle Agrion

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Beautiful Demoiselle
Photo: rober025, CC BY

The beautiful demoiselle is a large damselfly with a body length of about 5 cm and hindwings around 3 cm long. Adults live near fast-flowing waters where their larvae develop, and the species occurs across Europe, North Africa and Western Asia.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

It has small, side-positioned hemispherical eyes, two similar wings, and a slender abdomen. Males show extensive wing pigmentation compared with related species.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Body length ranges from 49 to 54 mm and hindwing length from 31 to 37 mm.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

Adult habitats match the nearby larval habitats.

Source: Wikipedia

Lookalikes

Its larvae prefer quieter water than those of the banded demoiselle, allowing better oxygen absorption.

Source: Wikipedia

More photos

Beautiful Demoiselle photo 3
Photo: Gilles San Martin, CC BY-SA
Beautiful Demoiselle photo 4
Photo: Tina Ellegaard Poulsen, CC BY

Same family (Calopterygidae)

Ebony JewelwingEbony JewelwingCalopteryx maculataBanded DemoiselleBanded DemoiselleCalopteryx splendensAmerican RubyspotAmerican RubyspotHetaerina americanaCopper DemoiselleCopper DemoiselleCalopteryx haemorrhoidalisSmoky RubyspotSmoky RubyspotHetaerina titiaRiver JewelwingRiver JewelwingCalopteryx aequabilis

Sources

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

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

Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.

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