One of the five common "King Skimmers" in Wisconsin. Relatively large at 2-2.2" in length. Males have 3 dark patches on each wing (thus 12 total) and white patches between each dark patch. Females have the 12 dark spots but lack the white spots. Males are unlikely to be confused with any other species but females closely resemble female Common Whitetail (L. lydia), which has similar wing pattern. Females C. Whitetails, however, have slanted/jagged yellow side-spots on the brown abdomen forming a sawtooth look compared to smooth yellow spots in Twelve-spotted Skimmer (somewhat similar to abdomen of female Widow Skimmer). This is a very commom dragonfly of Wisconsin ponds and marshes, where it often hunts in "flycatching" fashion from a prominent perch.