Desert Firetail

Telebasis salva · Order: Odonata · Family: Coenagrionidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Desert Firetail
Photo: Darin J McGuire, CC BY

The desert firetail is a narrow-winged damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae. It occurs across Central, North and South America.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

It is a narrow-winged damselfly belonging to the Coenagrionidae family.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

It lives in regions of Central America, North America and South America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its native range includes Central America, North America and South America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 10 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Arizona, California, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Kansas.

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

Source: GBIF

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Desert Firetail photo 3
Photo: Melissa McMasters, CC BY
Desert Firetail photo 4
Photo: John Rosford, CC BY
Desert Firetail photo 5
Photo: Alessandro Franchini, CC BY
Desert Firetail photo 6
Photo: Melissa McMasters, 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/Telebasis_salva

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

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

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.