Seventeen years after the publication of last checklist damselflies and dragonflies found in Italy, an updated list has been compiled. This reports 95 species belonging to 10 families 38 genera includes 2 national endemic 1 sub-endemic species. Compared previous checklist, three were removed, two subspecies granted status, added as new taxa for Italy. The summarizes current state knowledge on g...

Sexual selection can improve population fitness and purge deleterious mutation from the gene pool by promoting condition-dependent mate selection. One ecological factor that reduces individual condition is parasitism. Parasitism tends to increase hosts' load likely indicates inferior host genetic quality. Parasite-mediated selection, therefore, should favour mating success of parasite-resistant...

Predation selects for numerous traits in many animal species, with sick or parasitized prey often being at high risk. When challenged by parasites and pathogens, prey with poor immune functions are thus likely to be at a selective disadvantage. We tested the hypothesis that predation by birds selects for increased immune function in a wild population of male damselflies Calopteryx splendens, wh...

Damselflies (Odonata: Zygoptera) have a more complex sperm transfer system than other internally ejaculating insects. Males translocate sperm from the internal reproductive organs to the specific sperm vesicles, a small cavity on the body surface, and then transfer them into the female. To examine how the additional steps of sperm transfer contribute to decreases in sperm quality, we assessed s...

Wing pigmentation in Calopteryx damselflies, caused by the deposition of melanin, is energetically expensive to produce and enhances predation risk. However, patterns of melanisation are used in species identification, greater pigmentation is an accurate signal of male immune function in at least some species, and there may be a role for pigment in thermoregulation. This study tested two potent...

The study of a new specimen of Petrolestes hendersoni from the Eocene Green Formation allows a more precise description of the enigmatic damselfly and the diagnosis of the Petrolestini. Petrolestes messelensis sp. nov. is described from the Eocene Messel Formation in Germany, extending the distribution of the Petrolestini to the European Eocene. The new damsel-dragonfly family Pseudostenolestid...

The host-parasite interface between 2 species of damselflies and 4 species of eugregarines was examined at the ultrastructural level. Nubenocephalus nebraskensis organisms attached to the host midgut epithelium by means of a sucker-like protomerite; the space between the epicytic folds and host epithelium was filled with electron-dense material interpreted to be adhesive in nature. Actinocephal...

The study of color polymorphisms (CP) has provided profound insights into the maintenance of genetic variation in natural populations. We here offer the first evidence for an elaborate wing polymorphism in the Neotropical damselfly genus Polythore, which consists of 21 described species, distributed along the eastern slopes of the Andes in South America. These damselflies display highly complex...

Abstract For ectothermic insects, their colour and size are important determinants of body temperature: larger bodies require more heat to reach a certain temperature, dark colours absorb efficiently. These expressed using melanin, which has been intimately linked with the thermoregulatory capabilities insects. Melanin is also immune defence often used as secondary sexual character in There pot...