Common Whitetail

About the Common Whitetail

The mature male is unmistakable: a chalky white abdomen flashed like a signal flag between broad black wing bands. Females and young males wear brown abdomens with angled white side spots and three separate dark patches per wing - different enough that they are often mistaken for a different species.

Common Whitetails perch flat on the ground, docks, and rocks rather than clinging to stems like most dragonflies. That habit, plus a tolerance for nearly any still or slow water, makes them one of the most photographed dragonflies in Texas - they meet you at eye level.

Males hold small shoreline territories and settle disputes with that white abdomen: a resident raises it at a rival like a flag, and escalating displays usually replace actual combat. The white pruinosity develops with age, so you can roughly age a male by how chalky he has become.

Like all dragonflies they are pure predators at both ends of life - the aquatic nymphs take mosquito larvae and even small tadpoles, and the adults hawk flying insects from their perches all season, spring through fall.