Life history and secondary production of the Chinese endemic damselfly Euphaea opaca (Odonata: Euphaeidae)

Xianfu Lia, Haomiao Zhangb, Baoqiang Pana, Xiaoli Tonga

  1. Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, PRChina
  2. State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, PR China

International Journal of Odonatology, Volume 19, Issue 1-2, Pages 75-82, 2016
https://doi.org/10.1080/13887890.2016.1183524
Published: 2 April 2016 (Received: 24 January 2016, Accepted: 21 April 2016)

Abstract

Euphaea opaca Selys, 1853 is an endemic damselfly to China, but little is known about its biology and ecology. In this study, we investigated the life history and secondary production of E. opaca in a third order subtropical stream of Guangdong, China. Larvae were collected monthly from October 2010 to September 2011 using a Surber net with six replicates from riffle areas. The results show that E. opaca exhibited a univoltine life history in South China with recruitment from August to February of the following year; adults first appeared in late April and ended in early September, the flight period roughly coinciding with the rainy season. The mean nymphal density ranged from 1.85 individuals m–2 (July) to 81.48 individuals m–2 (January) during the study period. Estimated annual secondary production was 1240.4 mg DWm–2 year–1, and annual production/biomass ratio (P/B) was 6.4.

Keywords: dragonfly, damselfly, Euphaea; life cycle, univoltine, subtropical stream

Issue section: Article