Lyre-tipped Spreadwing

Lestes unguiculatus · Order: Odonata · Family: Lestidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Lyre-tipped Spreadwing
Photo: psweet, CC BY-SA

The lyre-tipped spreadwing is a type of damselfly in the family Lestidae. It lives in North America.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

It belongs to the spreadwing group of damselflies in the Lestidae family.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

Its habitat is in North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its native range is North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 32 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado.

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

Source: GBIF

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

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Lyre-tipped Spreadwing photo 3
Photo: Forest Botial-Jarvis, CC BY
Lyre-tipped Spreadwing photo 4
Photo: RJ Baltierra, CC BY
Lyre-tipped Spreadwing photo 5
Photo: Dennis Vollmar, CC BY
Lyre-tipped Spreadwing photo 6
Photo: John Rosford, CC BY

Same family (Lestidae)

Western Willow SpreadwingWestern Willow SpreadwingChalcolestes viridisSlender SpreadwingSlender SpreadwingLestes rectangularisCommon Winter DamselflyCommon Winter DamselflySympecma fuscaCommon SpreadwingCommon SpreadwingLestes sponsaGreat SpreadwingGreat SpreadwingArchilestes grandisSpotted SpreadwingSpotted SpreadwingLestes congener

Sources

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

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.