Eastern Forktail
Ischnura verticalis
Insecta
COMMON
Stats
- Lifespan
- A few weeks
- Size
- Small
- Diet
- Insectivore
- Activity
- Diurnal
- Social
- Solitary
- Biome
- Freshwater wetland
- Range
- North America
- Movement
- Flight
- Breeding
- Egg-laying
- Defense
- Camouflage
- Status
- Common
About
The Eastern Forktail is a slender damselfly found across eastern North America, where males sport vivid electric-blue and green patterning with a namesake forked blue tip on the abdomen. Despite their delicate size — barely an inch long — they are fierce aerial predators that patrol pond edges and slow streams from spring through autumn.
Life cycle
- 1.eggA small egg is laid on or near the larval food source and hatches within days or weeks.
- 2.juvenileAn immature insect feeds and molts, growing through successive instars.
- 3.subadultA near-adult insect has wing buds or near-mature form, one molt away from full size.
- 4.adultFully grown, with full wings and adult coloration.
Learn more
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Odonata
- Family
- Coenagrionidae
- Genus
- Ischnura
- Species
- Ischnura verticalis