#3686 · 🪽 dragonflies & damselflies
Downy Emerald
🇳🇱 Smaragdlibel ·Cordulia aenea
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The downy emerald ( Cordulia aenea ) is a species of dragonfly. It is metallic green and bronze in color, and its thorax is coated with fine hairs, hence its name. Like most other emeralds, the downy emerald has bright shiny green eyes. Adults are around 5 cm in length, and are in flight from May through July each year.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 288 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #25 most seen of the dragonflies & damselflies in NL.
- 9,503 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Downy Emerald
- Nederlands
- Smaragdlibel
- scientific name
- Cordulia aenea
- class
- Insecta
- order
- Odonata
- family
- Corduliidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 288
- sightings in Europe
- 8,218
- sightings worldwide
- 9,503
- GBIF records in NL
- 66,803
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 61429, Wikidata Q1394260, GBIF 1429717, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.