#3685 · 🪽 dragonflies & damselflies

Common Spreadwing

🇳🇱 Gewone Pantserjuffer ·Lestes sponsa

LCleast concern 🪽 Dragonflies & damselflies 📍 in the Netherlands

7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

1. © Lukas Thiess · CC BY-NC 4.0
2. © A Emmerson · CC BY-NC 4.0
3. © svetlana_mazurova · CC BY-NC 4.0
4. © Allan Hopkins · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
5. © Ryszard Orzechowski · CC BY-NC 4.0
6. © Henrik Hempelmann · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
7. © Erland Refling Nielsen · CC BY-NC 4.0

what is it?

Lestes sponsa , is a damselfly, with a wide Palaearctic distribution. It is known commonly as the emerald damselfly or common spreadwing . Both males and females have a metallic green colour and when resting its wings are usually half opened.

base stats

NL sightings 321iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 12,227iNaturalist observations
threat LCleast concern

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 321 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #24 most seen of the dragonflies & damselflies in NL.
12,227 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Johann Wilhelm Adolf Hansemann in 1823 (203 years ago).