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.
A new damselfly species, Philogenia realpei sp. nov., is described here from 5 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀ collected at Cauca and Putumayo departments in southern Colombia. This species is included in the P. helena group and can be differentiated from other species by the unique morphology of its paraprocts.
Coenagrion castellani Roberts, 1948 was described from Italy as a distinct species almost 75 years ago but has generally not been recognised or was treated as a subspecies of C. mercuriale (Charpentier, 1840). Populations south of the Alps were recently shown to be completely isolated genetically from those in North Africa and elsewhere in Europe.
The complete life cycle of O. ferruginea is described for the first time, represent the first complete life cycle described for an odonate in Mexico. The 17 larval instars obtained are described and illustrated in detail, from prolarva through F-0. Two egg batches of different females were obtained in the field and were subsequently reared in the laboratory.
The Neotropical genus Forcepsioneura is composed of 11 species that inhabit almost exclusively the Brazilian Atlantic Forest domain, with F. sancta (Hagen in Selys, 1860) being the only species of this genus known to occur in the Cerrado biome. Here we describe a new species of Forcepsioneura from the Cerrado of Minas Gerais State, Brazil….
Insect wings have no flight muscles, except those situated in the thorax. However, they continuously respond to forces acting on them during flight. This ability is achieved by the specialised design of the wings and plays a key role in their aerodynamic performance. Dragonfly (Anisoptera) wings represent an extreme example of this automatic shape control…
Trueman and Rowe (2019) claimed that they have finally solved the wing venation homologies for the Odonatoptera, refuting the previous models, and especially that of Riek and Kukalová-Peck (1984). Nevertheless, their proposal has several failures, viz. nature of the distal part of their “anal vein”, nature of the “MA”, and incongruence with recent results obtained…
This short communication reports on the warming ability of the damselfly Sympecma paedisca, which is known for its winter hibernation and tolerance to low temperatures. The data were collected using an infrared camera in late September on two sunny days (air temperature 15–17°C) in the vicinity of Kyiv, Central Ukraine. The obtained data show that…
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…
The representatives of the damselfly family Pseudostigmatidae are known for their ability to catch small orb web spiders, or in some cases small kleptoparasitic spiders in the webs of other spiders. In this paper, I demonstrate that the nanoscopic crystalline wax coverage of wings in the pseudostigmatid damselfly Mecistogaster ornata is partially altered due to…