Family: Cordulegastridae, Flying Adders view all from this family

Description 2 3/4-3 3/8" (70-85 mm), wingspan to 5 3/8" (135 mm). Thorax chocolate-brown with yellow markings. Abdomen blackish with middorsal line of yellow patches; segment 10 of male usually has a yellow spot on each side. Eyes green. Wings clear.

Food Adult feeds on flying insects. Naiad eats small insects, tadpoles, and worms.

Life Cycle Female uses long, strong ovipositor to press eggs singly into wet wood or other plant tissues near water's edge. Naiad burrows into silt or sand at stream bottom, then crawls out on some support and transforms to adult as early as late May in the North.

Habitat Near woodland streams.

Range Nevada and California to Alaska.

Discussion Between flights the Pacific Spiketail often clings beneath a support, hanging at an oblique angle. Chiefly a forest dragonfly, it is not aggressive toward other dragonflies.