This species is a mainly European damselfly, with some populations in Northern Africa and Western Asia.

[1][3] These damselflies inhabit small ponds, lakes and dikes, and occasionally slow-moving rivers.

[4] These large and robust damselflies show black legs and wing spots in both sexes.

Abdomen is red with black small rings and bronze-black bands towards the apex (segments 7-9).

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.

In Greece and Albania a closely related species occurs, the Greek red damsel (Pyrrhosoma elisabethae).