Adults are elegant, with metallic colors varying in males and females. Males have brown or partially colored wings and body with color ranging from blue to metallic bronze and sometimes extending to longitudinal veins. Females have brown wings that can be, depending on the species, from almost transparent to very pigmented. The body is brown-greenish with iridescent tints.

Like in other Zygoptera, their morphology is typical: head is dichoptic and forewings are equal in shape and development to hindwings. At rest they are closed and held vertically. The larvae feature three caudal respiratory lobes.

As all the Zygoptera, Calopterygidae are second-rate in their flight and the oviposition is endophytic.