The range of Macromia splendens, a rare anisopteran, includes SE France and some scattered localities on the Iberian Peninsula. During 1996-1998, I made an exhaustive search for the characteristics of the species’ larval and adult habitat, flight period and adult activity in NW Spain. Nine populations were found, greatly increasing its known range. Adults were…
Globally, freshwater ecosystems and the organisms that depend on them are at risk. Dragonflies and damselflies (collectively, “odonates”) have a history of being used as bioindicators of freshwater habitat quality due to their wide range in environmental sensitivities across species and because they are relatively accessible.
Disjunct biogeographic patterns of similar species remain enigmatic within evolutionary biology. Disparate distributions typically reflect species responses to major historical events including past climate change, tectonics, dispersal, and local extinction.
Understanding the seasonal regulation and life cycle patterns of Odonata is critical to identifying the factors that influence their voltinism. While the life history and seasonal regulation of Odonata, particularly gomphids, has been studied extensively, few studies have focused on North African gomphids.
Brazil hosts a wide range of Odonata species, including many hitherto unde¬scribed ones, especially in remote and unexplored regions where logistics are difficult. The northwestern Brazilian Amazon is an example of this situation, and many locations still need to be sampled there and have their taxonomic inventories compiled.
The advent of third generation sequencing technologies has led to a boom of high-quality, chromosome level genome assemblies of Odonata, but to date, these have not been widely used to estimate the demographic history of the sequenced species through time.
The taxonomic status of the Central Asian damselfly Calopteryx samarcandica was determined on the basis of molecular and phenotypic data from the Kugitang Mountains, SE Uzbekistan.
Natural landscapes of Latin America, such as the Cerrado biome, are increasingly changing due to conflicting development models between economic growth and biodiversity conservation. In cases of total or partial suppression of natural vegetation, more sunlight reaches the streams, leading to changes in Odonata assemblages.
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.
Large-scale forest fires have shaped the Mediterranean landscape for millennia, causing a recurrent disturbance that constitutes a serious environmental issue. Following a devastating forest fire, changes in the Odonata larvae assemblage of a headwater stream were analysed during six consecutive years.