The small, weakly flying black meadowhawk, currently treated as one species (Sympetrum danae), has a range that covers much of the boreal habitats of both North America and Eurasia. Given the flight capabilities of this dragonfly and recent phylogeographic studies of other widely distributed odonates, we questioned whether this taxon might show population subdivision over its large range. If so, such subdivision could be a product of past vicariant events in the Holarctic. In this study we use mitochondrial (COI) and nuclear (ITS1 & ITS2) loci to analyze the phylogeographic history of this species. The results of both genetic data sets show a distinct split between Eurasian-Beringian individuals and North American individuals, comparable to species-level distances (>7% for COI) within the genus. Eurasian and Beringian populations also show some subdivision. Eurasian-Beringian and North American populations should be recognized as different species, whose split is interpreted with respect to Pliocene vicariant events over Beringia.