They can be brilliant blue, green or brown, and have clear wings that can be 130 mm across. The naiad's flat lower lips, called labium, are used to catch tadpoles, small fish, and aquatic insects of all sorts. The Brown Darner is brown with pale yellow spots on the sides of the thorax. Skimmers have brightly coloured bodies. They are often found skimming along the pond's surface.
Females drop their eggs by washing the tip of the abdomen just below the water's surface.
The wings are reddish near the body and black or brown near the tips. The naiads are greenish with many brown markings. The abdomen is gray-brown to whitish. Each wing has three brown spots. Females have clear wings.