Subject: I have never seen one of these
Location: Virginia, USA.
April 26, 2016 7:07 am
Found near a creek in Virginia . Halifax county area. It is a couple of inches long. Has a stinger looking apparatus on its tail.
Signature: Matt
Dear Matt,
This aquatic nymph is an immature Damselfly, commonly called a Naiad like other aquatic nymphs of flying insects. Damselflies are classified with Dragonflies in the same insect order, Odonata. What you have mistaken for a stinger is actually a tripart organ, the gills, used to extract oxygen from the water.