Heteragrion makiritare sp. nov. is described from two males from the Pantepui region – holotype: Venezuela, Amazonas State, Marahuaka, Sima (3°43′N, 65°31′W), 1,140 m a.s.l., MIZA, no. 17250. It belongs in the species group whose paraprocts are absent in the male sex. The identity of H. macilentum is elucidated by examining its lectotype and a…
Here we describe tandem oviposition (contact guarding) in Lestes congener and the use of dry stems of the sedge Eleocharis obtusa as oviposition substrates at a pond in New York State. Pairs formed away from the pond, then flew to Eleocharis patches on dry land 0.5–3 m from the water’s edge. Some copulations occurred at…
Oviposition of Sympecma paedisca was observed in eastern Kazakstan. The main oviposition substrates were living Phragmites leaves. In comparison with European and Japanese populations we propose geographic variation in the proportional use of horizontal versus vertical oviposition substrates. Ovipositing females seemed to avoid the inner parts of Phragmites stands and there was a preference for…
Larval growth rate has the same temperature coefficient in three species of coenagrionids, but Argia vivida and Amphiagrion abbreviatum, which frequently live in geothermally heated water, grow fastest at 29.0–30.0°C compared with 23.4°C for Coenagrion resolutum, which lives in cooler water. Survival below 15°C in the laboratory was much better in C. resolutum. These characteristics…
Odonatans are rare as amber inclusions, but quite diverse in Cretaceous Burmese amber. In the past two years, over 20 new species have been found by the present authors after studying over 250 odonatans from 300,000 amber inclusions. Most of them have now been published, and here we provide a brief review. Three suborders of…
The larva of the genus Mesopodagrion was identified with the help of DNA barcoding and described for the first time. The larvae have flat horizontal gills resembling those of Argiolestidae but the adults lack setae on the shaft of the genital ligula. Molecular data are shown to be useful and necessary in larval identification and…
A list of genera presently included in Megapodagrionidae and Pseudolestidae is provided, together with information on species for which the larva has been described. Based on the shape of the gills, the genera for which the larva is known can be arranged into four groups: (1) species with inflated sack-like gills with a terminal filament;…
Of the many Zygopteran genera that occur in the Neotropics, only five (Hetaerina, Archilestes, Lestes, Argia, and Ischnura) are represented north of 40°N in North America, and only three of these (Hetaerina, Archilestes, and Argia) probably had a tropical origin. In the two genera of Lestidae (Archilestes and Lestes) the life history of temperate-zone populations…
A singular observation of an adult Tettigonia viridissima (Tettigoniidae) that captured a female Eutolmus rufibarbis (Asilidae) sucking a male Lestes sponsa (Lestidae) is reported. The reciprocal predation of Odonata, Asilidae, and Saltatoria (Ensifera, Caelifera) hitherto recorded in Europe is compiled and augmented by unpublished data on asilids as predators of odonates. Heavy predation by robber-flies…
We classified 542 records of voltinism for 275 species and subspecies of Odonata according to three variables: geographical latitude, systematic position and habitat type. We sorted records according to voltinism—categories being three or more generations per year, two generations per year, one generation per year, one generation in two years and one generation in three…