The Black Saddlebags is approximately 2 inches or 50 mm in length. The eyes are dark brown. The face is yellowish in young males and females, and black in mature males. The thorax is dark brown to black. The abdomen is black and often has one or more yellow marks down to segment 7. The forewing is narrow and clear. The hindwing is broad and clear with a large black patch (saddlebags) close to the abdomen. The windows on the inside of the saddlebags are variable.
The Black Saddlebags is present all summer and is common in Fontenelle Forest and Neale Woods. In late summer and fall they can be seen flying with darners in feeding swarms and also migrating with darners and gliders.
Migrants appear in summer to breed and apparently the offspring migrate south in the fall. Both sexes roost on dead twigs usually high in the tops of trees. When ovipositing, the male flies in tandem with the female. He releases her so she can lay an egg by tapping her abdomen on the water surface and then rejoins her to repeat the process.
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