A large family, but poorly represented in our region. B.C. has only six species and the Yukon appears to have none (although two species may live in the southeast). Compared to some other families, clubtails are not common here, but they are easily recognizable by their widely separated eyes and their green or yellow bodies striped in brown and black. The tip of the abdomen, especially in males, is enlarged, giving them their English name. Females lack an ovipositor and drop their eggs directly into clear streams and along the sandy shallows of larger lakes; they lay their eggs without the protection of their mates. Larvae burrow in the bottom sediments of these water bodies.
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A rare species of warm lakeshores and streams. Larvae burrow in sand along wave-washed shores, especially where mats of water weeds grow offshore; when ready to emerge, they crawl only a few centimetres up the beach to metamorphose. Adults bask on sunny ground near water. When disturbed, they have a characteristic undulating flight.
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