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.
Lestidae is a heterogeneous family with more than 150 species worldwide. There are many debates concerning its resolution. One of them is whether the genus Chalcolestes should be recognized as a genus or considered as a synonym of Lestes. We compared male characteristics of eight Hungarian species of three genera (Lestes, Chalcolestes and Sympecma) of…
A synopsis of the genus Philosina is provided. Larvae of the two known species, P. alba and P. buchi are described for the first time. The distribution of both species is discussed and information on behaviour and habitat is summarized. The specialized larvae of Philosina show a strong resemblance to those of Rhinagrion, suggesting that…
Two Cordulia species have been described so far, the Eurasian C. aenea and the North American vicariant C. shurtleffii. The names amurensis, tatrica, turfosa, laubmanni, linaenea and aeneaturfosa are available in the synonymy of C. aenea. Out of these, only the name amurensis is deemed to denote a separate taxon, which is currently regarded as…
Research about the behavior of Neotropical species is crucial to understand how the rapid environmental changes in the Neotropics affect the reproduction of various organisms. The reproductive behavior of insects in tropical ecosystems, such as those belonging to the order Odonata, is as yet scarcely known. In this article, the reproductive behavior of Erythrodiplax abjecta is described from several localities in the Colombian Andean Mountains.
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.
A two-variable analysis of male and female Cordulegaster boltonii larvae (head width and hindwing sheath length) in specimens from five Iberian populations was carried out with the objective of ascertaining whether these traits differ between populations.
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.
We analysed COI and ITS sequences from a total of 69 European Pyrrhosoma nymphula (Sulzer, 1776) and three P. elisabethae Schmidt, 1948 to explore species boundaries and phylogeographic patterns in their Western Palearctic distributions.
Gomphomacromia signata sp. n. is described and illustrated based on a single male collected in Napo Province, Ecuador.