The male's chunky white body (about 5 cm or 2 inches long), combined with the brownish-black bands on its otherwise translucent wings, give it a checkered look.

Because of their abundance, whitetail naiads are in turn an important food source for various fish, frogs, and birds, and also for other aquatic insects.

[5] The females prefer to oviposit in the middle of the day, and will actively look for particular parts of the pond to find a more suitable place to lay their eggs.

It seems that phenotypic characteristics such as body mass, wing length, and first day of reproduction do not directly affect selection in either males or females.

[6] Male-male competition on the other hand is very important, as males fight for territories that offer a better place for females to lay their eggs.

Males that were found to have the highest FMR had the least amount of gut contents, and in turn less fat reserves.

[8] This means that the male dragonflies are making a tradeoff between flight ability and longevity, which may affect long-term mating success.

A study found that temperature had incontestable effects on both embryogenic rate and hatching success in P. lydia eggs.

[12] Once the eggs have been deposited, female P. lydia have limited influence on the survival of offspring because they do not provide parental care.

[12] Dragonflies, including Plathemis lydia, spend most of their life cycle as aquatic larvae or nymphs, during which there is up to a 99.9% mortality rate.

[12] Plathemis lydia are adapted to swift flight that is made possible by the presence of broad wings and powerful muscles that move them.

In order to meet this oxygen requirement, P. lydia are equipped with a complex tracheal system which belongs to the peripneustic type in which the prothoracic and abdominal stigmata are present but not functional through the larva stage of life.

The P. lydia nymph is aquatic, and thus do not use their wings during this period of their life, which accounts for the lack of function of the prothoracic and abdominal stigmata.