---
title: "Common Whitetail"
description: "Plathemis lydia — Insetos e aranhas. The common whitetail or long-tailed skimmer (Plathemis lydia) is a common dragonfly across much of North America, with a striking and unusual appearance."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/pt/animal/common-whitetail
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Common Whitetail

> Plathemis lydia — Insetos e aranhas. The common whitetail or long-tailed skimmer (Plathemis lydia) is a common dragonfly across much of North America, with a striking and unusual appearance.

- Scientific name: *Plathemis lydia*
- Category: `insects` (Insetos e aranhas)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Lagos e rios)
- iNaturalist observations: 131616
- Wikidata: [Q141351](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q141351)
- iNaturalist taxon: [84549](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/84549)

## Names

- en: Common Whitetail
- de: Libellula lydia
- es: Rayadora blanca de Lydia
- fr: Libellule lydienne

## Countries with the most observations

US (112800), CA (16334), MX (86)

## Summary

The common whitetail or long-tailed skimmer (Plathemis lydia) is a common dragonfly across much of North America, with a striking and unusual appearance. The male's chunky white body (about 5 cm (2.0 in) long), combined with the brownish-black bands on its otherwise translucent wings, give it a checkered look. Females have a brown body and a different pattern of wing spots, closely resembling that of female Libellula pulchella, the twelve-spotted skimmer. Whitetail females can be distinguished by their smaller size, shorter bodies, and white zigzag abdominal stripes; the abdominal stripes of L. puchella are straight…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_whitetail

## Photo

![Common Whitetail](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/common-whitetail/medium.jpg)

Photo: Glenn Berry · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/84413880

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/common-whitetail?lang=pt` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).