The large red damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) males have red eyes and a black thorax with red shoulder stripes in mature specimen, but yellow stripes in immature. It can easily be confused with small red damselflies, but the latter has orange legs, while the large red damselfly has black legs.
Mature females occur in three colour forms (typical, fulvipes and melanotum), from mostly black to mostly red, but all have yellow bands around the abdominal segments.
