Search results for "Odonata"
showing 10 items of 37 documents
The effect of peatland drainage and restoration on Odonata species richness and abundance
2015
Background Restoration aims at reversing the trend of habitat degradation, the major threat to biodiversity. In Finland, more than half of the original peatland area has been drained, and during recent years, restoration of some of the drained peatlands has been accomplished. Short-term effects of the restoration on peatland hydrology, chemistry and vegetation are promising but little is known about how other species groups apart from vascular plants and bryophytes respond to restoration efforts. Results Here, we studied how abundance and species richness of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) respond to restoration. We sampled larvae in three sites (restored, drained, pristine) on each o…
A new family of Odonatoptera from the continental Upper Permian: The Lapeyriidae (Lodève Basin, France)
1999
Abstract The new family Lapeyriidae of Odonatoptera, based on a new genus and species from the Upper Permian of Lodevois (France) is the sister group of Nodialata. It represents an evolutionary link between the venation type of the Paleozoic Meganisoptera and that of Odonata. Even if the present discovery demonstrates that the fossil record of the Odonatoptera remains imperfectly known, the present state of knowledge shows that this super order survived the mass extinction at the Permo-Triassic boundary.
Farmland versus forest: comparing changes in Odonata species composition in western and eastern Sweden
2013
Despite the loss of natural ecosystems in the developed world dur- ing the past millennia, anthropogenic landscapes still sustain much biodiversity. Our question was, whether ten year changes in regional Odonata faunas are comparable between farmland and forested areas, or if the species pool of farm- land areas respond in other ways than that of forest. 2. We used data of dragonfly larvae collected from 16 lakes in a farmland area in south-western Sweden in the years 2002 and 2011/12, and compared these to data from 34 lakes in a forest area in south-eastern Sweden in the years 1996 and 2006. 3. The species-richness in the agricultural region increased by 17% but decreased by 13% in the fo…
Hand feeding: a method to increase the survival rate ofOrthetrum coerulescens(Odonata: Libellulidae) in outdoor enclosures
2014
Food intake rate and diet composition have a high impact on all organisms and affect individual fitness, fecundity and mortality. Specimens in enclosures have to be fed in an adequate way and with minimum stress for the specimens. Adult dragonflies are flying hunters. In enclosures, they are usually fed by adding different kinds of adult dipterans. In this study, I additionally fed specimens of Orthetrum coerulescens by hand. Each specimen received one house fly or up to six fruit flies per day. This was less than an adult dragonfly would normally consume; however, this additional hand feeding was enough to significantly increase the survival rate of individuals, especially within the first…
A disjunctive site of Sympecma paedisca (Brau.) (Odonata: Lestidae) in Opole Silesia (south-western Poland)
2013
The occurrence of Sympecma paedisca in a small water body in the Limestone Quarry “Gorazdze” was recorded in 2010. This site is interesting because of the anthropogenic nature of ecosystem and its location 50 km west of the known range of the species.
The larva of Gomphus davidi Selys, 1887
1983
The female exuvia and last larval stage of Gomphus davidi Selys, 1887, a dragonfly endemic in the Middle East are described and figured. Distinctive characters of two sympatric Gomphus-species are provided.
Immunocompetence and resource holding potential in the damselfly, Calopteryx virgo L
2004
It is generally believed that resource holding potential reliably reflects male quality, but empirical evidence showing this is scarce. Here we show that the outcome of male-male competition may predict male immunocompetence in the territorial damselfly, Calopteryx virgo (Odonata: Calopterygidae). We staged contests between 27 pairs of males and found that winners of the contests showed higher immunocompetence, measured as encapsulation response, compared with that of losers. Furthermore, the winners had larger fat reserves. We also collected 29 males that had not been used in staged contests, and found that in these males encapsulation response correlated positively with an individual’s fa…
Impacts of piscicide-induced fish removal on resource use and trophic diversity of lake invertebrates
2022
Chemical eradication of non-native species has become a widely used method to mitigate the potential negative im- pacts of altered competitive or predatory dynamics on biodiversity and natural ecosystem processes. However, the re- sponses of non-target species can vary from rapid full recovery to delayed or absent recolonization, and little is known about the potential shifts in resource use and trophic diversity of native species following chemical treatments. We used a before-after-control-impact approach to study the effects of rotenone piscicide treatment on abundance and tro- phic niche of benthic invertebrates in three untreated and three treated lakes in central Norway, the latter gr…
First record of Lindenia tetraphylla (Vander Linden, 1825) and rediscovery of Orthetrum nitidinerve (Selys, 1841) in Sicily (Insecta: Odonata)
2017
The first Sicilian record of Lindenia tetraphylla and a new regional record of Orthetrum nitidinerve, species not recorded since 1975 in mainland Sicily, are here reported. All individuals of L. tetraphylla and O. nitidinerve were observed in the same site in the province of Trapani.
Natural selection mediated by seasonal time constraints increases the alignment between evolvability and developmental plasticity
2021
Abstract Phenotypic plasticity can either hinder or promote adaptation to novel environments. Recent studies that have quantified alignments between plasticity, genetic variation, and divergence propose that such alignments may reflect constraints that bias future evolutionary trajectories. Here, we emphasize that such alignments may themselves be a result of natural selection and do not necessarily indicate constraints on adaptation. We estimated developmental plasticity and broad sense genetic covariance matrices (G) among damselfly populations situated along a latitudinal gradient in Europe. Damselflies were reared at photoperiod treatments that simulated the seasonal time constraints ex…