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brown spiketail
brown spiketail (Cordulegaster bilineata) [female] [male]
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Features and Behaviors
FEATURES
The brown spiketail is recognizable by paired yellow abdominal triangles, like most other spiketails. The brown spiketail differs from other spiketails by its brown body, rather than black. Males and females have blue eyes, ranging from dull blue to turquoise, and a white face with a black band across it. Their thorax is brown with yellow diagonal stripes. Their abdomen is also brown with yellow stripes on the sides of segments one through three, and triangles pointing towards the trail on the fourth through eighth segments. Females can be distinguished from males by thicker abdomen and a portion of their exoskeleton that extends all the way to the end of the abdomen.
BEHAVIOR
Both males and females are known to forage and perch low to the ground in sunny clearings. They like small streams in woodlands. They are found just inside Illinois’ eastern border with Indiana. Populations range from the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, south to Alabama, the northern half of Georgia, and extending northeast stopping just before the shorelines of the East Coast.
Illinois Range
Taxonomy
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Odonata
Family: Cordulegastridae
Illinois Status
native