Mexican Forktail

Ischnura demorsa · Order: Odonata · Family: Coenagrionidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Mexican Forktail
Photo: Mike Ostrowski, CC BY-SA

The Mexican Forktail is a damselfly that belongs to the genus Ischnura, known as forktails, within the narrow-winged damselfly family Coenagrionidae. It is found across Central America and North America.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

It is a damselfly in the genus Ischnura, the forktails, and part of the family Coenagrionidae.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its distribution includes Central America and North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 8 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Oklahoma, Nevada.

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

Source: GBIF

Months it is reported in the US

JFMAMJJASOND

Source: GBIF

More photos

Mexican Forktail photo 3
Photo: Isaac Ethington, CC BY
Mexican Forktail photo 4
Photo: Isaac Ethington, CC BY
Mexican Forktail photo 5
Photo: William Harmon, CC BY
Mexican Forktail photo 6
Photo: William Harmon, 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_demorsa

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.