Colour-based traits are widespread in flying species due to the importance of visual perception in their communication. Ontogenetic colour changes and reversible physiological colours occur in some species and are used as communication signals to conspecifics. The genus Mnais (Zygoptera: Calopterygidae) shows both genetic colour polymorphism and age-related colour changes, making challenging even the identification…
The Odonata from the Refúgio Estadual da Vida Silvestre do Rio Pandeiros (RVSP), located in the Cerrado domain, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, were rapidly surveyed. Sampling efforts were undertaken along the Rio Pandeiros margins during four sampling periods between the rainy (spring–summer) and dry seasons (autumn–winter) from July 2014 to April 2015. We sampled 97…
The transition between larval and adult stage in amphibious insects is called emergence. During emergence abdominal contractions and excretion of liquid drops can be observed in several insect orders. Since the function of these processes is not yet known in odonates, this study examines the probable function of abdominal contractions and excretion of liquid drops…
Robust male condition must be favored and should be signaled to conspecifics via enhanced aggression and more highly expressed ornamental traits. One way that such robust condition, and thereby the expression of aggression and ornamental traits, can be assessed is via survival. In odonate adults, condition (in the form of lipid reserves, muscle mass and…
In the nineteenth century Edmond de Selys Longchamps assembled a collection consisting of watercolours, drawings and notes on Odonata. Most illustrations were based on specimens from his extensive odonate collection and were mainly executed by Selys himself and by Guillaume Severin. These illustrations and notes are presently housed in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural…
Microneura caligata (Hagen in Selys, 1886) is an endangered damselfly presently known from five localities in the central mountains of Cuba. The precise systematic position of this species within the former Neotropical Protoneuridae has been the subject of debate, with previous results from a phylogenetic analysis based on morphology suggesting that the genus Microneura should…
Pseudagrion woodlarkensis sp. nov., a new damselfly species from Woodlark Island, Papua New Guinea, is described and male and female characters are illustrated. The new species differs from all regional congeners by having a predominantly yellow thorax with bold black stripes, and males can be clearly distinguished from all Papuan Pseudagrion species by the complex…
Female limited polymorphism consists in the coexistence of two or more female morphs in the same population and is widespread among odonates. Generally, one female morph, the andromorph, resembles males in colour or, sometimes, also in morphology and behaviour, while one or more other morphs, gynomorphs, differ from males. This phenomenon is probably promoted by…
The Antilles harbour several island endemic odonate species, including some palaeoendemics, within a relatively small and anthropized area. Such attributes give this archipelago a special significance for the conservation of Odonata in the Neotropics. However, despite the importance of these islands, inadequately surveyed regions persist, mainly in the Greater Antilles, and there is not enough…
A hitherto unknown flight pattern of female Calopteryx splendens is described. On a day with heavy winds, when no damselfly could fly in open space of the river, I observed and filmed four to six females foraging in a small bay sheltered by bank vegetation. Females fought for perches and showed a threatening flight with…