The Racket-tailed Emerald is a small dark dragonfly with bright metallic green eyes and an obvious clubbed abdomen. They are very common and not that wary of people. Feeding swarms of Racket-tails will often fly around humans, eating the insects that are attracted by the people
Often found away from the water foraging around roads, paths and forest openings. Racket-tails will often swarm around humans to hunt insects that are attracted to people. They perch more often than other species of emeralds often perching on leaves, logs, rocks or the ground
Lakes, ponds, slow-moving streams usually with marshy or boggy shorelines
Females lay eggs by dipping abdomen into open water or near floating vegetation
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Range maps and checklists courtesy of Odonata Central. Copyright © 2016 OdonataCentral. All Rights Reserved. Abbott, J.C. 2006-2018. OdonataCentral: An online resource for the distribution and identification of Odonata. Available at www.odonatacentral.org.