Male four-spotted chasers are active insects and spend long periods of time hawking over the water and surrounding vegetation, both hunting for other insects and marking out their territories. They appear from late May until August and must mate and reproduce during this short season. Mating takes place on the wing and the females then hover over the water surface, dropping her eggs which sink down to adhere to submerged vegetation.
The larvae of the four-spotted chaser live for about two years amongst the vegetation and muddy debris at the bottom of their pond. When they have grown to a large enough size they climb up the stems of emergent vegetation before completing their transformation into adults.