E-Fauna BC: Electronic Atlas of the Wildlife of British Columbia

Baskettails live around the northern hemisphere. Rather than metallic green and black, like other emeralds, baskettails have a brown thorax and a dark abdomen with yellow marks on the sides. The hindwings are marked with brown at the base. Females fly with the end of the abdomen curled upwards, the forked, finger-like vulvar lamina holding a ball of eggs as in a basket, which gives the group its English name. To lay the eggs, a female dips the egg mass into the water and it uncoils in long, gelatinous strands that float near the surface. Many females may contribute to communal egg masses. Larvae are less hairy and less coated with algae than those of our other emeralds; they have prominent dorsal and lateral spines on a broad abdomen. Some biologists place the North American species in the genus Tetragoneuria.

Transition. Scattered records from the south coast to the Peace River drainage; no records from the dry southern valleys of the interior.