lilypad clubtail

Lilypad clubtail is an early season, medium-sized, pond clubtail. It is found from Maine and Virginia to Minnesota. Its range includes most of Wisconsin but barely makes it across the border to Minnesota.

The thorax of the male is pale grayish-green with black markings including two thin upper (dorsal) stripes, a broad shoulder stripe, and a side (lateral) stripe arches around to join the middorsal stripe at the end. The female thorax is yellowish but is otherwise similar.

The abdomen is slender and black with yellow markings. The upper (dorsal) surface or abdominal segments 1 through 7 have narrow, elongated, lance-shaped spots. Segment 8 sometimes has a sort yellow streak, segment 9 is unmarked, and segment 10 is mostly yellow on top. Segments 8 and 9 also have bright orangish-brown patches on the sides. On the male the end of the abdomen is only slightly expanded into a “club” that is widest at segment 8. The claspers at the end of the abdomen point inward and are often yellow. On the female the abdomen is tapered from segment 7 to a very narrow segment 10.

The head is small. The large compound eyes are azure blue. They do not meet at the top of the head. The area behind the compound eyes at the top of the head (occiput) is straight across or only slightly convex.

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.

Total length: about 2″

Horned clubtail (Arigomphus cornutus) has a broader abdomen with wider dorsal spots, including a dorsal spot on segment 8. The occiput is convex and very high, especially so in the female.

Marshy ponds, lakes, and slow streams with submerged vegetation and brushy shores

Late May to early August

It often perches on lilypads, hence the common name, but also on other floating vegetation, small trees, and sometimes the ground.

After mating the females deposits eggs by flying close to the water surface and tapping the tip of her abdomen into water. After the eggs hatch the young (naiads) live in submerged vegetation. When they mature they crawl onto a lily pad or partly out of the water on a vegetative stem to emerge as adults.

Sources

7, 18, 29, 30, 82, 83

Uncommon

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 furcifer. 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 Arigomphus. 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 furcifer became Arigomphus furcifer.

Arigomphus furcifer pseudopupils 21 June 2014 IMGP4900.mov
kestrelhaven