This species overwinters in the adult stage and is typically found in habitats with permanent and/or semi-permanent water. Adults are flying in the spring and summer and typically rest during the day in hollow trees, culverts, under overhanging stream banks, rock ledges, and other moist, dark shelters. The larvae develop in a wide variety of cool water wetland habitats including permanent swamps, along the edges of ponds and slow moving streams, borrow pits, wheel ruts in muddy roads, roadside puddles, and rainwater barrels. A. punctipennis feeds on mammals, mostly after dark but will attack during the day in dense woodlands. This is primarily an outdoor species and rarely enters buildings. West Nile Virus was first isolated in this species in 2000.