arrow clubtail

arrow clubtail (Stylurus spiniceps) [female] [male]
Photos © Paul Dacko

FEATURES
Arrow clubtails are long, slender, and vividly patterned river clubtails. The clubtail family is known as the most exciting, alert, fast-flying group of dragonflies. Males have green eyes and slightly brown pale faces. The thorax appears to have 2 broad, dark diagonal stripes with pale, upside-down exclamation points in each and separated by a pale broad stripe. Legs and abdomen are mostly black with pale markings on the underside with a small pale triangle at the start of each of the third through eighth segments, and irregular pale spots on the sides of segments seven through nine. The tail is shaped like a narrow club. The female has the same coloring as the male, but yellow spots on the sides of the thicker abdomen are more prominent and the tail lacks club shape.

BEHAVIOR
Immature arrow clubtails spend much time usually in woodlands away from the water. Males take long patrol flights over breeding grounds, near the water’s surface along the shady shoreline, or over open water. The flight appears to bounce between hovering and rapid, “straight like an arrow” flight. They are more common at the water in the late afternoon. They like rivers flowing through forested landscapes with some riffle-producing currents. They mostly inhabit the northern half of Illinois, dipping down along the river towards southern Missouri. They range up towards northern Wisconsin and northeast towards the East Coast.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Odonata
Family: Gomphidae