Grappletail
Octogomphus specularis
The grappletail is a dragonfly from North America. It belongs to the clubtails, dragonflies whose tail gets wider at the very end, like a little club. It is so special that it is the only kind in its whole group.
Lives in
North America, near water
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Dragonflies do not sting people.
What does it eat?
Like all dragonflies, it catches small flying insects in the air. Its babies hunt underwater.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
Grappletail about 40 km/h (25 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Scientists put it in a group all of its own. No other dragonfly in the world belongs to that group.
2
In one part of Canada, nobody saw a grappletail for 40 years. Then in July 2020, people out on a hike spotted it again.
3
The hikers who found it were not professional scientists. Anyone who looks carefully at nature can help scientists.
you asked
Most asked questions about Grappletail
?Where does the grappletail live?
In North America, near water.
?Is the grappletail dangerous?
No. Like all dragonflies, it cannot sting people.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Octogomphus specularis
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Gomphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Gomphidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Octogomphus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Ken-ichi Ueda. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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