The traditional method of classifying the twenty-one species within the South American genus Polythore has been relying on wing color patterns and male genital ligula shape. However, recent molecular research has shown that wing color patterns can vary significantly within some species, making it an insufficient means of species diagnosis by itself in some cases.
Robust male condition must be favored and should be signaled to conspecifics via enhanced aggression and more highly expressed ornamental traits. One way that such robust condition, and thereby the expression of aggression and ornamental traits, can be assessed is via survival. In odonate adults, condition (in the form of lipid reserves, muscle mass and…
Polythorid damselflies are Neotropical stream dwellers, whose behavior has rarely been recorded. Here we describe the territorial and courtship behavior of Chalcopteryx scintillans McLachlan, an Amazonian damselfly with shiny copper-colored hind wings. Territorial behavior consists of aerial contests, when males engage in threat displays and mutual pursuits in ascending and rocking flights. During courtship, males…
The final larval stadium of four species of Cora are described and compared with known species in the genus. Cora skinneri Calvert, 1907, C. semiopaca Selys, 1878 and C. lugubris Navás, 1934 are described and illustrated for the first time using material from Costa Rica for the first two and from Colombia for the latter….
We studied a population of Polythore procera along a stream in the Colombian eastern Andean foothills. Mark and recapture samples were made during January to April 2006, covering both dry and wet seasons. We determined population size, daily survival probability, and longevity during the entire period and compared them with precipitation data. Age and sex…
Supplementary specimens of the monotypic genus Kalocora show that diagnostic characters employed by Kennedy, based on the original description of Cora aurea are too variable, and therefore Kalocora is here relegated to synonymy under Cora.