Sep 19, 2020
Arrowhead Spiketail (Cordulegaster obliqua)
This relatively rare dragonfly breeds in small forest streams and seepages in late spring and early summer. I only encountered them in early June, and by midsummer the muddy seep that they laid eggs in had completely dried up, entombing the larvae until the water flows again.
Members of the small family Cordulegastridae can take up to 5 years to develop in their nymph stage, and the short lived adults seem to specialize in preying on bees and wasps.
when laying eggs, the females can lay hundreds at a time, depositing them into the mud with a motion that my dragonfly book compares to a sewing machine: