Australian Tiger - The Largest Clubtails Dragonfly
Ictinogomphus australis FAMILY GOMPHIDAE - Clubtails
This page contains pictures and information about Australian Tiger Dragonflies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Male, body length 65mm, wingspan 80
Australian Tigers are the largest clubtails in Australia. Like most other clubtails, they are yellow and black in colour. The males are with broad flaps on clubbed abdomen end. So they are also called 'Finned Clubtails'.
We can find Australian Tiger on Bulimba Creek and Moolabin Creek, the two sites that we visited most for dragonflies. The Australian Tiger will always occupy the best perching position, which is usually the emergent vegetation or fallen branches in the pool or slow running water. Where the dragonfly can oversee a large piece of water as his territory.
The Australian Tiger will drive away any intruders, i.e., another male of his own species. The Australian Tiger will ignore any damselfly and LIBELLULIDAE. If it is an Australian Emerald or Slender Tigerlet, the Australian Tiger may follow it for one or two meters to confirm it is not another Tiger. If it comes another Tiger, The dragonfly will chase it and both will disappear from our eyes sight, and he will come back a few seconds later. If it is disturbed by us, such as come too close to take the photo, it will disappear and seems never come back, or at least half an hour, the maximum time that we had waited.
The above pictures show a female Australian Tiger. Male and female look the same except the female has the thicker abdomen and round wings base. We saw the female lays eggs by quickly dip her abdomen tip onto the water surface, closely guarded by a male.
Sometime we can see a Australian Tiger perches on a high point in open forest hunting for prey.
- Male Australian Tiger wings
- Female Australian Tiger wings
- Notice that the Tiger wings have all the triangles cells crossed veins.
