Montana Field Guide

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Although Western Forktails tend to be more common on streams than other forktails, especially slow, grassy or sedge-dominated ones, they also select the habitats of alkaline ponds with mud substrates and marshy edges of lakes. This species tends to avoid acidic conditions. Away from breeding sites, the Western Forktail can be found along forest trails basking in patches of filtered sunlight (Westfall and May 1996, Nikula et al. 2002, Acorn 2004, Paulson 2009).

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

Male Western Forktails are usually outnumbered by females in most situations. They are most likely to be found in dense vegetation and rarely out over the open water. It is likely that females only copulate once and all the eggs she lays is fertilized by that single males sperm. Female Western Forktails also oviposit alone, horizontally on floating vegetation with short flights between egg deposition (Nikula et al. 2002, Paulson 2009).