Identical to their smaller counterparts, giant dragonflies can reach up to four feet in length. They have brilliant iridescent or metallic colors, making them conspicuous in flight, their overall coloration is often a combination of yellow, red, brown, and and blue or green.

Fast, agile fliers capable of highly accurate aerial ambushes, able to fly in any direction, and changing direction suddenly, able to propel themselves upward, downward, forward, backward, to left and to right with equal agility.

Giant dragonflies hunt on the wing using their exceptionally acute eyesight and strong, agile flight. They are exclusively carnivorous, willing to attack prey even as large as an adult human.Large prey is subdued by being bitten on the head and then carried by the dragonfly wrapping its legs around the prey, to a nearby perch.