Masters of land, water, and air, ebony jewelwing damselflies grace shallow, slow-running freshwater creeks, streams, and rivers of Central and Eastern Turtle Island with their strikingly iridescent blue-green abdomens and dark wings as they feast on large quantities of small insects including mosquitoes and gnats - often catching them in mid-flight. Curious and cautious, ebony jewelwings may be seen in sun-dappled forests hopping backwards from leaf-to-leaf on broadleaf plants such as wood nettles when approached by humans.

Damselflies, like our beloved ebony jewelwing, are distinguished from their larger dragonfly cousins by their size and delicate, vertically-folding wings. Females are distinguished from males by a white dot on the tip of each wing. The geographic range of the ebony jewelwing stretches from Florida to Maine, and westward to Texas. The distribution of the ebony jewelwing overlaps largely with the Misiziibi (mis - i - zee - bi; '“giant river” in Ojibwe; origin of name “Mississippi River”) and her tributaries - the geographic range of flora, fauna, and fungi centered in our natural heritage, folk medicine, and wildcrafting.