#3662 · 🪽 dragonflies & damselflies
Blue-tailed Damselfly
🇳🇱 Lantaarntje ·Ischnura elegans
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The blue-tailed damselfly ( Ischnura elegans ) is a European damselfly.
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 2,395 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #1 most seen of the dragonflies & damselflies in NL.
- 63,298 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Pierre Léonard Vander Linden in 1820 (206 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Blue-tailed Damselfly
- Nederlands
- Lantaarntje
- scientific name
- Ischnura elegans
- class
- Insecta
- order
- Odonata
- family
- Coenagrionidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 2,395
- sightings in Europe
- 57,048
- sightings worldwide
- 63,298
- GBIF records in NL
- 271,563
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1820 by Pierre Léonard Vander Linden
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Coenagrionidae
#3665 📷 10Azure Damselfly
🇳🇱 Azuurwaterjuffer
Coenagrion puella
LC 👀 1.6k in NL
#3668 📷 8Common Blue Damselfly
🇳🇱 Watersnuffel
Enallagma cyathigerum
LC 👀 1k in NL
#3669 📷 10Large Red Damselfly
🇳🇱 Vuurjuffer
Pyrrhosoma nymphula
LC 👀 918 in NL
#3676 📷 10Variable Bluet
🇳🇱 Variabele Waterjuffer
Coenagrion pulchellum
LC 👀 562 in NL
#3684 📷 8Red-eyed Damselfly
🇳🇱 Grote roodoogjuffer
Erythromma najas
LC 👀 328 in NL
#3689 📷 10Small Red-eyed Damselfly
🇳🇱 Kleine Roodoogjuffer
Erythromma viridulum
LC 👀 225 in NL
#3692 📷 10Small Red Damselfly
🇳🇱 Koraaljuffer
Ceriagrion tenellum
LC 👀 174 in NL
#3699 📷 10Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly
🇳🇱 Tengere Grasjuffer
Ischnura pumilio
LC 👀 155 in NL
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 61508, Wikidata Q548472, GBIF 1423395, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.