Racket-tailed Emerald

Dorocordulia libera · Order: Odonata · Family: Corduliidae

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

The racket-tailed emerald is a slender dragonfly with a metallic green body, brown hair, black legs and clear wings. It lives in shallow wetlands such as bogs, ponds, streams and similar habitats. This species is found across North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Occurs in North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 20 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania.

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

Racket-tailed Emerald photo 3
Photo: Nick Block, CC BY
Racket-tailed Emerald photo 4
Photo: psweet, CC BY-SA
Racket-tailed Emerald photo 5
Photo: Matt Pelikan, CC BY
Racket-tailed Emerald photo 6
Photo: Ryan F. Mandelbaum, CC BY

Same family (Corduliidae)

Prince BaskettailPrince BaskettailEpitheca princepsDowny EmeraldDowny EmeraldCordulia aeneaCommon BaskettailCommon BaskettailEpitheca cynosuraTau EmeraldTau EmeraldHemicordulia tauAmerican EmeraldAmerican EmeraldCordulia shurtleffiiAustralian Emerald DragonflyAustralian Emerald DragonflyHemicordulia australiae

Sources

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

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.