Odonata (Insecta) communities along an elevational gradient in the Atlantic forest of southeastern Brazil, with the description of the female of Heteragrion mantiqueirae Machado, 2006

Despite the important role of the order Odonata in ecosystems, there is a lack of information about dragonfly communities in several regions, high elevation sites, and environmentally protected areas in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Our objective was to assess the abundance and richness of dragonfly and damselfly communities along an elevational gradient in the Atlantic Forest, southeastern Brazil.

To harass or to respect: the economy of male persistence despite female refusal in a damselfly with scramble mate competition

In sexual conflict, males are often thought to gain fitness benefits from harassing females over mating. Yet when harassment itself incurs costs to males and if alternative, receptive females are available in a local population, theory predicts that when confronted with a female refusal, a male’s choice of persisting or retreating is determined in part by the likelihood of achieving a mating.

Additions to the dragonfly genus Lauromacromia, with description of the female of Lauromacromia luismoojeni and new distributional records (Odonata: Corduliidae s.l.)

Taxonomic, morphological and distributional data on three species of the rare South American corduliid genus Lauromacromia Geijskes, 1970 are updated based on specimens collected recently and old specimens deposited in natural history collections. The female of the poorly known Lauromacromia luismoojeni (Santos, 1967), an endemic species from the Brazilian Cerrado, is illustrated, described and diagnosed…

Analysing the European genera of family Lestidae (Odonata: Zygoptera) with special emphasis on the status of Chalcolestes based on the morphological characteristics of male adults

Lestidae is a heterogeneous family with more than 150 species worldwide. There are many debates concerning its resolution. One of them is whether the genus Chalcolestes should be recognized as a genus or considered as a synonym of Lestes. We compared male characteristics of eight Hungarian species of three genera (Lestes, Chalcolestes and Sympecma) of…

Female color polymorphism of Ischnura capreolus Hagen, 1861 (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) with notes on behavior and ontogenetic color changes

Polymorphism in coenagrionids is widely known, mainly for Ischnura. Here, we present the case of I. capreolus, a Neotropical species of which, until now, little information concerning color polymorphism and ontogenetic color changes was known. We used a marking and recapture method to evidence ontogenetic coloration changes in females. We show that, in addition to…