Fivespot Threadtail

Nososticta solitaria · Order: Odonata · Family: Platycnemididae

Also called: five-spot threadtail

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Fivespot Threadtail
Photo: Summerdrought, CC BY-SA

The five-spot threadtail is a medium-sized damselfly about 35 to 40 mm long, with a wingspan roughly equal to its body length. It lives near rivers, streams and pools in north-eastern Australia, from Cape York down to the Queensland-New South Wales border.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

The abdomen is dark with five pale or green bands, the largest on segments 5 and 8.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Adults measure about 35 to 40 mm in length, and their wingspan is about the same as their body length.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

They are typically found near rivers, streams and pools.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

They occur only in north-eastern Australia. Within Australia they are present from the tip of Cape York Peninsula down to the southern Queensland border.

Source: Wikipedia

More photos

Same family (Platycnemididae)

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nososticta_solitaria

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.