Males need to impress the females before they can mate. Initially, they perform a kind of aerial dance during which they show the females a bright yellow to white dot, located on the underside of the body [the ‘tail light’ at the eighth abdominal segment]. Then they approach the female by brief, repetitive opening of the wings. Should the female accept, mating commences, which takes about 15 minutes. Afterwards the female will deposit her eggs. For this purpose, she completely submerges by holding on to water plants, and deposits the eggs into their tissues.
The eggs take around 14 days to hatch. The larva lives two years under water. The imago only lives a few weeks.