Entoma
Yellow featherlegs, Copera marginipes, plate

Featherleg damselflies

Copera marginipes

Yellow featherlegs

The Yellow featherlegs damselfly shows bright yellow-orange legs, while the last two segments of its abdomen turn almost entirely bluish-white in mature males.

WhereForest streams across tropical Asia
Size17 to 20 mm hindwing length
WhenMarch to January

The Yellow featherlegs is a slender damselfly with a black-bronze thorax marked by narrow yellow stripes and bright yellow-orange legs. Its abdomen is dark above and pale below, with the last two segments turning bluish-white in mature males.

It breeds in slow streams and ponds with plenty of shaded vegetation, and is common across lowland tropical Asia. Adults perch low among waterside plants and fly for most of the year.

Traits

Habitat

Wetland

Colour

Yellow, Black, Orange

Active

Day

To people

Perches low among shaded waterside plants; harmless to people.

Activity through the year

Often confused with

Copera vittatanot in guide
Copera vittata

In Copera vittata the male's anal appendages are as long as the last abdominal segment, not about half that length as in the Yellow featherlegs.

Questions

Is the Yellow featherlegs dangerous to people?

Perches low among shaded waterside plants; harmless to people.

When can you see the Yellow featherlegs?

The Yellow featherlegs can be seen from March to January, by day.

Plate retouched from a photo by Vihansith Kulatunga, CC BY‑SA 4.0, iNaturalist Licence

The plate on this page is shared under the same licence as its source, CC BY-SA.

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Dragonflies and damselflies›Featherleg damselflies›Copera

Last updated 2026-09-27. Every entry is checked against published sources.