Cordulegastridae
Encyclopedia
The Cordulegastridae are a family of Odonata
(dragonflies) from the suborder Anisoptera. They are commonly known as Spiketails. Some vernacular
names for the species of this family are biddie and flying adder. They have a large brown or black body with yellow markings. They can be found along small, clear, woodland streams, flying slowly 30 to 70 cm above the water. When disturbed, however, they can fly very rapidly.
The Cordulegastridae usually lay their eggs in the sand in shallow water, the female hovering just above the water with her body in a vertical position, and making repeated dips into the water with her abdomen.
The family is distributed world-wide; all eight species in North America
belong to the genus
Cordulegaster
.
The name Cordulegastridae comes from the Greek
kordylinus, 'club-shaped' and gaster, belly. The common name spiketails refers to the females' prominent ovipositor
.
Odonata
Odonata is an order of insects, encompassing dragonflies and damselflies . The word dragonfly is also sometimes used to refer to all Odonata, but the back-formation odonate is a more correct English name for the group as a whole...
(dragonflies) from the suborder Anisoptera. They are commonly known as Spiketails. Some vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
names for the species of this family are biddie and flying adder. They have a large brown or black body with yellow markings. They can be found along small, clear, woodland streams, flying slowly 30 to 70 cm above the water. When disturbed, however, they can fly very rapidly.
The Cordulegastridae usually lay their eggs in the sand in shallow water, the female hovering just above the water with her body in a vertical position, and making repeated dips into the water with her abdomen.
The family is distributed world-wide; all eight species in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
belong to the genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Cordulegaster
Cordulegaster
Cordulegaster is a genus of dragonfly in family Cordulegastridae. It contains the following species:*Cordulegaster algerica *Cordulegaster annandalei *Cordulegaster bidentata – Sombre Goldenring...
.
The name Cordulegastridae comes from the Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
kordylinus, 'club-shaped' and gaster, belly. The common name spiketails refers to the females' prominent ovipositor
Ovipositor
The ovipositor is an organ used by some animals for oviposition, i.e., the laying of eggs. It consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages formed to transmit the egg, to prepare a place for it, and to place it properly...
.