[5] The common name refers directly to the male's pruinosity, appearing to be covered with a powdery blue or grayish substance.

Immature (freshly moulted, or teneral) males are tan to dark brown, turning darker with age and becoming almost completely whitish (pruinose) at maturity.

[7]: 62–63 Females come in blue and brown forms based on the color of the thorax, which has hair thin dark shoulder stripes.

The female then bends her abdomen to engage segments 2–3 of the male, where sperm is stored, forming a heart-shaped "mating wheel".

The female finds a shallow aquatic plant and uses her ovipositor to insert her eggs in dead or live tissue while guarded by her mate.