The article considers the phenomenon of ballistic defaecation by odonate larvae, exhibited by certain Anisoptera but not by any Zygoptera, and explores two possibilities: (1) that ballistic defaecation in Anisoptera may correlate with increased foraging success (the ‘Wudkevich Hypothesis’) by distancing the prey’s alarm pheromone, persisting in the pellet after defaecation, from the larva’s ambush…
Previously, the genus Stylogomphus in North America was believed to contain only a single species, S. albistylus. We present evidence for recognizing a second species, S. sigmastylus sp. nov.: holotype ♂, allotype ♀: Big Swan Creek, near Gordonsburg Church of Christ, Lewis County, Tennessee, 11 June 1990, C. Cook leg., deposited in the Florida State…
The main, externally visible components of odonate reproductive behaviour were known from published accounts for about 300 years before sperm displacement during copulation was first described. The latter discovery, revealed by Jonathan Waage in 1979, revolutionised the interpretation of odonate reproductive behaviour, allowing it for the first time to be interpreted convincingly in the context…
This synopsis of adult Triacanthagyna includes the revalidation of two species thought to be synonyms (T. nympha and T. obscuripennis), the description of a new species (T. williamsoni; type locality: Peru, Tingo María), keys to both sexes, illustrations of diagnostic characters, and distribution maps of all species. A phylogenetic assessment of the nine species is…
Thirty-five dragonfly species are reported from Mongolia and Inner Mongolia. Three are first records. A non-parametric test is used to determine the total number of species to be expected. It suggests that the current number of 62 may be asymptotically complete, except for some specific zones like the Bulgan valley in the south-west, and the…
The taxonomy of Chlorocypha species is problematic due to variability and the paucity of morphological characters. Subspecies radix of C. glauca is raised to specific rank. C. sharpae is found to be a synonym of C. luminosa. The synonymy of C. jejuna with C. luminosa is rejected. The former species is similar to the Southern…
Lamproneura lucerna gen. nov., sp. nov. (Protoneuridae) is described from a male from the Turimiquire mountains, in northeastern Venezuela. Penis morphology places the new genus close to Forcepsioneura, Psaironeura and Roppaneura., The first Venezuelan record of the genus Phasmoneura is presented. Cyanallagma ferenigrum sp. nov. (Coenagrionidae) is described from a male and a female from…
The new species (holotype ♂ 01 August 2001, Fanjingshan, Guizhou, China) is described and illustrated from a single male, deposited at the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History.
Communities have a nested-subset structure if the species found in species-poor assemblages are also found in progressively more species-rich assemblages. This nested-subset structure can be caused by differential colonization rates among species, differential extinction rates among species, or nested niche space. In this study, the assemblages of larval odonates in the Enoree River of South…
The mark-and-recapture method was used to study the population dynamics of the endangered brackish water species, Mortonagrion hirosei, in a small reed community of an estuary in the warm-temperate zone of Japan. The flying season was from late May to early August. The age structure showed that newly emerged adults always stayed in the reed…