Bug FAQApache Spiketail
Cordulegaster diadema · Order: Odonata · Family: Cordulegastridae
Adult Apache Spiketail dragonflies are about 7.4 to 8.8 cm long. Their head is yellow-brown with yellow to black hairs, and the first leg segment is yellow. They are found from the southwestern United States down through Mexico to Costa Rica.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The first proximal segment of each leg is yellow. The thorax shows two side stripes with a yellow stripe between them.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Mature adults measure between 74 and 88 millimetres in length.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Its range extends from the southwestern United States through Mexico to Costa Rica.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 3 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Arizona, Utah, New Mexico.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What are the key identification marks of this dragonfly?
It has a yellow-brown head with yellow to black hairs, yellow first leg segments, and a thorax with two lateral stripes separated by a yellow stripe.
Source: Wikipedia
Where is the Apache Spiketail found?
It occurs from the southwestern United States down to Mexico and Costa Rica.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Cordulegastridae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordulegaster_diadema
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-26 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-26.