NC Odonate Website

Related Species in GOMPHIDAE:

Number of records for 2025 = 2

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Brook Snaketail (Ophiogomphus aspersus) by Ted Wilcox

Compare with: Appalachian Snaketail Edmund's Snaketail Maine Snaketail Rusty Snaketail
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Note: these identification tips apply to both sexes. Female depicted here.

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Map

Click on county for list of all its records for Brook Snaketail

Flight Charts

Distribution

This is a Northern species, apparently with a disjunct population in the southern Appalachians. In NC, it is found primarily in the northern mountains (next to the VA state line), with an outlier record from Haywood County.

Abundance

Very rare (only two recent records) in the vicinity of the New River in Ashe, Alleghany, and Watauga counties, and certainly very rare to absent farther southward in the mountains. This is especially true in that all known daily counts are of just a single individual. This is clearly one of the state's rarest dragonflies for which there is a definite recent record; there are a handful of other dragonflies that are just as rare (or rarer) for which there are no certain records in the past 20 years and thus might actually have been extirpated from the state.

Flight

Probably the latter part of May into most of June. The only NC dates available are from 23 May to 13 June, though of course the flight period must surely be a month or more.

Habitat

Not surprisingly, it breeds in clear, rocky rivers or streams, but Dunkle (2000) says these waters are "in the open", with brushy margins.

Behavior

Adults forage both near water and in fields and woodland roads/trails. Males perch on rocks in the rivers/creeks and elsewhere.

Comments

This is another of the many clubtails that is very poorly known in the state, in part because the southern edge of the range apparently includes only a relatively few counties (in the mountains). Ted Wilcox's record came from the New River, as did a collection record from Duncan Cuyler. In May 2025, Guy McGrane photographed one in Watauga County, in an upland but near the South Fork of the New River. (Thus, the habitat as written in most guides is not strictly "brooks" or "streams", but it can be larger rivers such as the New, though the river near Boone in Watauga County is more of a "brook".) Biologists looking for clubtails in the mountains always should check first alongside the largest and rockiest rivers available -- in the case of Ashe, Alleghany, and Watauga counties, it is the New River. Sadly, quite a few biologists have searched this river in the past decade, coming up short on this and a few other rare clubtails (such as Pygmy Snaketail) -- until "re-found" in 2025.

State Rank

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Species account update: LeGrand on 2025-05-24 18:37:43

Photo Gallery for Brook Snaketail 6 photos are shown.		Other NC Galleries: Jeff Pippen Will Cook Ted Wilcox
	Photo 1 by: Guy McGrane Comment: Watauga, 2025-05-23, Brookshire Park - Hilltop between switchbacks		Photo 2 by: Guy McGrane Comment: Watauga, 2025-05-23, Brookshire Park - Hilltop between switchbacks
	Photo 3 by: Ted Wilcox Comment: Alleghany, 2007-06-13, New River State Park, female		Photo 4 by: Ted Wilcox Comment: Watauga, 2025-05-25, Brookshire Park, Boone NC, Upper loop in the field - Adult Male
	Photo 5 by: Ted Wilcox Comment: Watauga, 2025-05-25, Brookshire Park, Boone NC, Upper loop in the field - Adult Male		Photo 6 by: Ted Wilcox Comment: Watauga, 2025-05-25, Brookshire Park, Boone NC, Upper loop in the field - Adult Male