mustached clubtail

The face is yellow. The upper part of the face (frons) is completely surrounded with a bold black border. The bottom of the border forms a black “mustache” line across the face that gives this species its common name. There is also a wider horizontal stripe on the lower part of the face above the upper lip (labrum), and an inverted triangle dividing the labrum.

Total length: 1 11 ⁄16″ to 1 13 ⁄16″

Fast-flowing streams and rivers, exposed lake shores

Early May to late August

Sources

7, 17, 18.

24, 27, 29, 30, 82, 83.

Biodiversity occurrence data published by: Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas (accessed through the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas Portal, bellatlas.umn.edu, XX/XX/XXXX).

Suborder
"The older classification of Odonata recognized two or three suborders: Anisoptera (the “true dragonflies”), Zygoptera (the damselflies), and sometimes Anisozygoptera (a small group including two living genera often called “ancient dragonflies”). However, modern phylogenetic studies incorporating molecular data have revealed that Anisozygoptera, as traditionally defined, is paraphyletic—meaning it did not form a natural group containing a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Instead, its members represent evolutionary branches that diverged earlier than, or alongside, the diversification of what were considered “true” dragonflies. To resolve this and better reflect evolutionary relationships, the new suborder Epiprocta was proposed in 1992 by Lohmann.

The suborder Epiprocta now encompasses all dragonflies, including the two extant genera previously grouped under Anisozygoptera (which now form the infraorder Epiophlebioptera within Epiprocta). Anisoptera is now considered an infraorder within Epiprocta, containing the vast majority of familiar dragonflies.

While this classification with Epiprocta as a suborder and Anisoptera as an infraorder represents the current consensus in much of the academic phylogenetic literature, especially among researchers actively working on Odonata evolutionary relationships using molecular data, it has not yet been universally adopted by all major public taxonomic databases such as BugGuide, iNaturalist, ITIS, and Catalog of Life, which retain the older classification."

Superfamily
The family Gomphidae was formerly placed in the superfamily Aeshnoidea. However, modern phylogenetic studies, particularly those utilizing molecular data (DNA sequencing), have consistently shown that Gomphidae, along with Petaluridae, form a distinct evolutionary lineage that warrants its own superfamily, Gomphoidea."