Diminutive Clubtail

Phanogomphus diminutus · Order: Odonata · Family: Gomphidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Diminutive Clubtail
Photo: Jeff Clark, CC BY

The diminutive clubtail is a clubtail dragonfly in the family Gomphidae. It lives in boggy trickles, slow small streams, and lakes with sand-silt bottoms and Sphagnum moss margins. The species is found only in the southeastern United States.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Phanogomphus diminutus, called the diminutive clubtail, belongs to the clubtail dragonfly family Gomphidae.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

It inhabits boggy trickles, slow small streams, and lakes that have mixed sand and silt bottoms with Sphagnum moss along the edges.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 4 of 51 states and DC. Most records: South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: endemic in North America; endemic in United States. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Diminutive Clubtail photo 2
Photo: iNaturalist user, CC0
Diminutive Clubtail photo 3
Photo: evangrimes, CC BY
Diminutive Clubtail photo 4
Photo: Judy Gallagher, CC BY-SA
Diminutive Clubtail photo 5
Photo: Jeff Clark, CC BY

Same family (Gomphidae)

Small PincertailSmall PincertailOnychogomphus forcipatusDragonhunterDragonhunterHagenius brevistylusBlack-shouldered SpinylegBlack-shouldered SpinylegDromogomphus spinosusCommon ClubtailCommon ClubtailGomphus vulgatissimusLarge PincertailLarge PincertailOnychogomphus uncatusEastern RingtailEastern RingtailErpetogomphus designatus

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phanogomphus_diminutus

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-27 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-27.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.