Redtail

Ceriagrion aeruginosum · Order: Odonata · Family: Coenagrionidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Redtail
Photo: Summerdrought, CC BY-SA

Adult male Redtails are medium-sized damselflies with a wingspan of about 5 cm and a body length near 4.5 cm. They are mostly red, turning pale green on the synthorax as they get older.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Males are mainly red, with the middle part of the body becoming pale green as they mature.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Adults have a wingspan of about 50 mm and a body length of roughly 45 mm.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

They are found in freshwater swamps, ponds and slow-moving streams.

Source: Wikipedia

More photos

Redtail photo 3
Photo: John Tann from Mullumbimby, Australia, CC BY 2.0
Redtail photo 4
Photo: John Tann from Mullumbimby, Australia, CC BY 2.0
Redtail photo 5
Photo: Vengolis, 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/Ceriagrion_aeruginosum

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

Text written 2026-10-23 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.