Odonates have been recognized as an important group for evaluating ecosystems since they are used as bioindicators of the conservation status of the habitat they occupy, in addition to being generalist predators feeding on invertebrates and small vertebrates. In this work, the biodiversity of adult odonates from a locality near the San Marcos River, in…
Recent studies have indicated that frequent anthropogenic disturbances in tropical developing countries are primary drivers of reduction in community diversity and local extinction of many arthropods, including dragonflies. We assessed the impact of anthropogenic disturbances on odonate assemblages across three different land use types, in a biodiverse nature reserve in Ghana. A total of 37…
One of the forest types occurring in Southern Brazil is the mixed ombrophilous forest (MOF), a subtype of the Atlantic Forest, which is one of the richest biomes on Earth. This biome currently remains as a highly fragmented mosaic, under pressure from human development. The diversity and ecology of most animal groups in this biome…
Water mites (Arrenurus spp.) parasitize adult dragonflies. We collected dragonflies weekly at 11 waterbodies in Greenville Co. and Pickens Co., SC, USA, to: (1) compare parasitism prevalence across species, sites, and sampling periods; (2) test the hypothesis that prevalence correlates with host abundance; (3) test the hypothesis that prevalence is inversely related to host diversity…
We review the knowledge about the thermal reaction norms of larval growth in Odonata with a focus on the temperature response function. We re-analyze literature data and present our own results on growth rates of larvae of 14 species of Libellulidae reared at different temperatures. Temperature response curves (TRC) were fitted in order to estimate…
This study showed that the main impact on Odonata species of removal of riparian vegetation for road building was on community composition, since species richness remained unaltered. This result, most evident in damselflies, was probably driven by the entry of generalist species that replaced specialist species after the impact. We collected adult odonates in forested…