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Sticker of River clubtail
Bug card No. 3647 of 4,939

River clubtail

Stylurus flavipes
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsDragonflies and damselfliesPonds, rivers and shores6 legs

The river clubtail is a medium-sized dragonfly with yellow legs. Its eyes sit far apart on its head. The boys have blue eyes and the girls have green ones. It lives along big, slow rivers.

Lives in
Europe and Asia, from France all the way to eastern Siberia, along big rivers
Length
5 to 5.5 cm (2 to 2.2 in)
Wingspan
7 to 8 cm (2.8 to 3.1 in)
Top speed
about 38 km/h (24 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Dragonflies have no sting. Just watch it fly.
What does it eat?
It catches smaller insects in the air. Its babies live buried in the riverbed and grab small animals with a special folding lower lip called a mask.
For real!Photo of River clubtail
Picture by Christian Fischer. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

River clubtail about 5.5 cm long (2.2 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)

How wide are its wings?

River clubtail wings about 8 cm tip to tip (3.1 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 9 grains of rice in a rowas long as 1.5 toy building bricks in a rowwings as wide as 2.5 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 9.9 secondsmoves 190 times its own body length every second

How big is River clubtail compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its babies spend three whole years buried in the mud and sand at the bottom of the river.

2

The mother flies just above the water and drops her eggs in one by one or in tiny bunches.

3

Grown-ups are hard to spot. The best time to see them is in early summer, when the young ones climb out of the river.

4

It has become rare in Western Europe because rivers got dirty and were straightened by people.

5

It flies from June to September.

you asked

Most asked questions about River clubtail

?Is the river clubtail dangerous?

No. Dragonflies have no sting and are harmless to people.

?How big is the river clubtail?

It is 50 to 55 millimetres long, with wings about 70 to 80 millimetres across.

?Where does the river clubtail live?

Along big, slow rivers in Europe and Asia, from France to Siberia.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Stylurus flavipes
Group
Dragonflies and damselflies
Family
Gomphidae
Classification
Insecta > Odonata > Gomphidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia
Also known as
Yellow-legged dragonfly

Where the facts come from

  1. Gomphus flavipes (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Christian Fischer. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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