Males of Calopteryx splendens use two alternative mating tactics, territoriality, and non-territoriality. These different mating tactics are shown to vary between males within the same population and previous studies have shown that territorial males have considerably higher fitness than non-territorial males.
Demography and territorial behavior of Hetaerina cruentata was studied along three lowland streams located at Norte de Santander department in the Colombian Andean region. Adult damselflies (N: 278) were individually marked, and using their recapture histories we estimated survival, longevity, sex ratio, age groups and population size at each location.
Vestalis gracilis (Rambur, 1842) is a forest stream damselfly belonging to the family Calopterygidae. Its last-stadium larvae and exuviae are described and illustrated based on laboratory-raised specimens from Thailand, and observations of agonistic behavior are provided. The taxonomical characters of V. gracilis larvae are similar to those of V. amoena.
A new species, Noguchiphaea laotica, is described based on specimens from Lon San, Saysomboun Province, Laos. The holotype male and a paratype female are deposited in the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo. This new species is allied to N. yoshikoae from northern Thailand, but differs from it in the morphology of the male…
Adaptation of life-history traits is an important factor for the success of insects. Voltinism is a feature that descends from several life-history traits and, given that the latter depend on the specific environment of growth, voltinism can vary between populations across latitudes or habitats. In addition, some insects, like many odonates, have developed different patterns…
Colour-based traits are widespread in flying species due to the importance of visual perception in their communication. Ontogenetic colour changes and reversible physiological colours occur in some species and are used as communication signals to conspecifics. The genus Mnais (Zygoptera: Calopterygidae) shows both genetic colour polymorphism and age-related colour changes, making challenging even the identification…
We used next-generation sequencing to characterise the complete mitochondrial genome of the damselfly Mnais costalis (Odonata, Calopterygidae). Illumina paired end reads were mapped against COI and 16S sequences from M. costalis and then extended using an iterative de novo map procedure. The final assembly was a contiguous sequence of 15,487 bp, which contained all standard mitochondrial…
The reproductive behaviour of the damselfly Neurobasis chinensis (Calopterygidae) was filmed at 300 and 600 frames per second in Thailand in spring 2009. This was subsequently viewed in slow motion for detailed analysis. Altogether we observed 26 matings at two different sites. Besides visual observations of behaviour of male–female encounters at the reproductive sites, we…
Distribution and abundance of sympatric Mnais costalis and M. pruinosa damselflies were studied in a low mountain stream in Shiga, Japan, from 2008 through 2012. The reproductive seasons of the two species overlapped almost entirely: both species emerged in early May and disappeared in late June each year. Males of both species hold territories within…
The calopterygines Archineura incarnata and Atrocalopteryx melli are subtropical habitat specialists, endemic to China, and sensitive to environmental change. We identified several sites with environmental deterioration from which the species seem to have disappeared; these species can be used as indicators of human disturbance. In this paper their distribution in China is mapped and information…