This study represents the first attempt to comprehensively survey the Odonata Several species known or suspected of occurring in these systems are of high conservation concern and their continued presence is threatened by the impacts of climate change, and, to a lesser degree, by recreation pressure. The goal of this study was to document the presence of species of concern while establishing a baseline from which to track changes to the complete species assemblage of Odonata over time. During the study period, I detected a total of 43 species and found at least one species of concern at all but one of my thirteen study sites. In addition, I documented resource damage from recreational use at several of the study sites which the United States Forest Service is working to rehabilitate.
The life cycle of Coenagrion puella was studied from 2011 to 2021 in a small shallow pond in southern Sweden (58 degrees 33'N) by regular sampling. Development was normally mixed uni-/semivoltine with variable proportions. The first winter was typically spent in a range of six stadia, up to the penultimate one. Emergence, from late May to early July, resulted from accelerated development in the four or five last overwintering stadia (>1.7 mm head width) with no apparent peak. Smaller overwintering larvae, forming the semivoltine cohort, grew slowly in their second year in a long-day induced diapause-like state preparing for winter, mostly ending in the penultimate stadium before winter like the fastest univoltines, occasionally also in the final stadium. An identical cohort split was experimentally demonstrated by manipulating spring photoperiod. Hatchlings from 2012 mainly became semivoltine, probably from late oviposition, whereas those from 2013 were mainly univoltine. In 2015 and 2017 reproduction failed, probably due to plant cover hiding the water surface during drought, combined with poor weather. In 2018, an early spring with only large larvae and a hot dry summer seems to have restricted reproduction to an early and brief period, resulting in offspring with an exceptionally synchronous univoltine development, overwintering in the penultimate stadium. The observed differences between years suggest that results from single-year studies may not be representative. A one- or two-year development with reduced overwintering in the final larval stadium seems ubiquitous in Europe, univoltinism in the Mediterranean, and surprisingly often mixed voltinism further north (48-58 degrees N). A gradient of regulatory responses, life history and gross phenology/phenological adaptation in Swedish C. puella, C. hastulatum, and C. armatum is discussed.
Tuberculobasis cornu sp. nov. (holotype male: Tapatosso, Suriname, 04 degrees 04'28.844"N, 54 degrees 47'37.406"W, 06.iv.1963, leg. J. Belle; RMNH.INS.514704) is described. The diagnostic characteristics of the genus Tuberculobasis are slightly adapted, summarized, applied on the new species and compared to those of Denticulobasis. Several notes on the genus Tuberculobasis are presented and a new intrageneric classification is proposed.
A new species of dragonfly, Anax bismarckensis sp. nov., is described based on a male from New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. The new species differs from most of its New Guinean congeners by lacking an apico-lateral spike on the cerci and its abdomen being 1.4 times as long as the hind wing. Anax bismarckensis sp. nov. represents the 8th species of the genus known from Papua New Guinea and is currently known only from the holotype from Vudal on New Britain, collected 03.viii.1971. It seems to coexist on New Britain with the very similar long-bodied Anax maclachlani Forster, 1898 (male abdomen >1.3 times length of hind wing) and Anax guttatus (Burmeister, 1839), a short-bodied species (male abdomen <1.3 times length of hind wing). The male of A. bismarckensis sp. nov. is compared with all other congeners from Melanesia. In addition, the range of Anax insulanus, Theischinger, Kalnins & Marinov, 2024, from the Solomon Islands is extended to include Bougainville, situated within the political boundary of Papua New Guinea.
