green-faced clubtail

Green-faced clubtail is an early season, medium-sized clubtail. While it is more common in the northeast than in Minnesota, it is uncommon and considered rare over most of its range.

The upper (dorsal) side of the thorax is pale grayish-green on top with black markings including a broad central (middorsal) stripe, two lateral stripes, and a shoulder stripe. The side of the thorax is grayish-green with an incomplete first (anterior) stripe that arches around to join the shoulder stripe. There is no middle stripe found on most other clubtails.

The abdomen is slender and black with yellow markings. Abdominal segments 1 through 7 have small yellow dorsal spots and larger yellow lateral spots. On the male the dorsal spots are tiny. On the female they are larger but still small. Segments 8 through 10 are unmarked on top. Segment 9 is shorter than segment 8. Segments 8, 9, and 10 are expanded into a noticeable “club”.

The head is small. The large compound eyes are green. They do not meet at the top of the head. The area behind the compound eyes at the top of the head (occiput) is slightly convex. The face is grayish-green with a single horizontal stripe on the lower part of the face above the upper lip (labrum) that is divided in the middle horizontally.

The legs are black.

The wings are clear except for dark stigmas. The wing triangle, a section of intersecting veins about 20% of the way from the base to the wingtip, is about the same size in the forewing and the hindwing.

The female is similar but may have yellowish markings, especially on the face.

Total length: 1¾″

Mustached clubtail (Hylogomphus adelphus) has two black horizontal lines on the face and an inverted black triangle dividing the labrum. The lower line is not divided in the middle.

Rapid medium streams and rivers with gravel, silt, sand, and rocks

Mid-may to mid-July

Males are most active in late afternoon, especially under cloud cover.

The female does not have an ovipositor. She lays her eggs by washing them off in fast-flowing water. The eggs flow into slow water where the young (naiads) develop.

Sources

7, 18, 29, 30, 82, 83

Biodiversity occurrence data published by: Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas (accessed through the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas Portal, bellatlas.umn.edu, 7/31/2025).

Haarstad, J. 1997. The dragonflies of selected eastern Minnesota rivers. Report submitted to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Unpaged.

Steffens, W. P., and W. A. Smith. 1999. Status survey for special concern and endangered dragonflies of Minnesota: population status, inventory and monitoring recommendations. Final report submitted to the Natural Heritage and Nongame Research Program, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. 54 pp.

Rare

Superfamily
Some taxonomic sources, including iNaturalist.org and the NCBI database, place the family Gomphidae in the superfamily Gomphoidea under the suborder Anisoptera. This reflects a modern classification based on recent phylogenetic studies. Other sources, such as BugGuide.net and Catalogue of Life, follow a more traditional classification that places Gomphidae directly under Anisoptera with no superfamily. This difference is not a simplified ranking, but rather a reflection of the ongoing process of updating taxonomy as new evidence becomes available.

Genus
This species was formerly classified as Gomphus viridifrons. In an attempt to clarify the relationships of species in the genus Gomphus (Needham, 1947) , five subgenera were proposed. This species was placed in the subgenus Hylogomphus. In later years, several other subgenera were defined. Nine of the genera were grouped in what was called the Gomphus complex. A recent phylogenetic analysis (Ware, et al., 2017) raised all nine subgenera in the complex to genus level, and Gomphus viridifrons became Hylogomphus viridifrons.