Montana Field Guide

The Pronghorn Clubtail is an uncommon, less so than the plains clubtail, medium-sized dragonfly with a black body extensively marked with yellow including a dorsal strip of yellow on all abdominal segements and a moderate club at the end of the abdoman. Sandy, gravelly or muddy streams and rivers with some current and grassy or wooded banks are preferred habitat (Dunkle 2000, Nikula et al. 2002, Paulson 2009).

Pronghorn Clubtail has more yellow S10-pale stripe in Male and mostly yellow in female while the Plains Clubtail abdomen S10 mostly brown with yellow dot.

The habitat of the Pronghorn Clubtail is usually slow-flowing streams with sandy or muddy substrates. These streams can be either rocky or not and occur in either forested or open areas. Ponds and lakes are also suitable habitats. Away from water Pronghorn Clubtails often uses nearby forests as forage habitat and will perch on trees (Dunkle 2000, Paulson 2009).

Larvae feed on a wide variety of aquatic insects, such as mosquito larvae, other aquatic fly larvae, mayfly larvae, and freshwater shrimp. They will also eat very small fish and tadpoles.
Adult- The dragonfly will eat almost any soft-bodied flying insect including mosquitoes, flies, small moths, mayflies, and flying ants or termites.

Male Pronghorn Clubtails patrol their territories slowly up and down reaches or shorelines but do not often hover. Some searching for females may also occur away from breeding sites. After copulation, females tend to oviposit near the shoreline by tapping the waterline with her abdomen at irregular intervals (Dunkle 2000, Paulson 2009).