Common Whitetail Dragonfly along the south section of the new hiking trail this weekend at Lake Kirby. You might wonder why this common name if there is no white tail? The explanation is that you are seeing the female here and it’s the males that have the prominent white tail. I did see males in the area but none would pose for a photo! Whitetails are among the most common dragonflies in Texas. The adult form is the dragonfly you see flying around, usually over water. However, dragonflies spend most of their lifetime in the water as immature nymphs (kind of the same as the caterpillar is to the adult butterfly). Dragonfly nymphs are voracious predators and eat worms, mosquito larvae, and tiny fish. The nymph will eventually crawl out of the water and sheds its skin to become an adult.
Texas Rolling Plains Naturalist 