It has the biggest geographical range among the European Gomphid species, occurring from France to eastern Siberia.

Gomphus flavipes lives along the middle and lower reaches of slow flowing medium-sized and big rivers The species prefers riverbed with mud, clay, loam or fine sand as soil, since larvae develop buried in the soil, but avoids areas with decomposition of organic matter and oxygen-poor stagnant water.

Both sexes have predominantly yellow legs and the males has thin angled appendages, while his 10th segment is entirely black dorsally.

As imagos, they are predators too, their diet consisting of small invertebrates which they capture with they specialized labium called the mask.

Gomphus flavipes has become an endangered species in most Western European countries due to water pollution and river regulation.