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Approximately 3 centimeter meadowhawk with white face, black abdominal patterns, and black legs. Males have reddish-brown eyes and red abdomen with black triangle patterns. The thorax is brown, but sometimes may look paler on the lateral sides. The legs are reddish black. Females reddish brown and pale green colours on their eyes and pale yellow on face. The colour of the thorax is brown, darker at the front and lighter on the sides. The abdomen is also brown, but has black patterns (Paulson 2009).

The process of mating is in a wheel position often for an extended period of time. Oviposition can happen alone or in tandem. After mating, the male may release the female and both land. During oviposition, the male will guard around her, whereas the female will either fly up to drop eggs or just perch to lay eggs into shallow water. The eggs then overwinter and hatch in the spring (Paulson 2009). The adults emerge in the evening (Lung and Sommer 2001) when the flight season begins.