[1] This species of dragonfly is native to Japan, distributing widely around the forested headwaters of rivers in its four main islands,[2] serving as a freshwater indicator of ecosystem health.

[3] With the adults being adapted for flight in these cool habitats, and the larvae to exploit the stable environment and detritus based ecosystems of high elevation spring-fed seeps and streams.

[8] Some plesiomorphic character states are the following: labial end hook occasionally two-segmented (not as usual as one-segmented), well developed glossae and paraglossae, and a trilobate hypopharynx.

[9] Epiophlebia larvae are unique because their antennae have 5 segments, the head has observable paralabial ridges, and they are capable of producing sounds when they rub the inner apex of the femora against the files on the sides of the abdomen.

[2] Once standing on the place of oviposition, she rises her abdomen in an arc while maintaining its ovipositor in contact with the stalk and starts testing the plant with trial thrusts while descending in the stem, if the surface proves too solid she will fly away,[4] but if the plant is adequate she will start laying eggs in the bottom of the stem while moving slowly from left to right, and then returning from right to left.

She repeats this action while also slowly ascending in the stem until she finishes the oviposition of up to a thousand eggs, producing a distinguishable zigzag pattern of scars along the surface of the stalk.

[4][2] Several minutes after reaching the water surface, after a period longer than that of most other dragonflies,[4] the prolarval exuvia is cast and the first instar larva sinks to the stream bed.