Little is known about the frequency of water mite ectoparasitism (Acari: Hydrachnida) within and among damselfly species of Central Florida. Here I present a field survey of the assemblage of damselflies and their water mite parasites at the Archbold Biological Station (Lake Placid, FL) during late Mar, 2006. During this period, 4 species of damselfly were abundant: Ischnura hastata (Say) and N...

More than 1.2 million distribution records were used to create species models for 402 Palaearctic of dragonflies and damselflies. On the basis these diversity maps total, lentic lotic whole (excluding China Himalayan region) are presented. These show a clear pattern decreasing longitudinally, with numbers dropping in eastern half Europe remaining low throughout large part Russia, then increasin...

Understanding how phenotypic plasticity evolves and in turn affects the course of evolution is a major challenge in modern biology. By definition, biological species are reproductively isolated, but many animals fail to distinguish between conspecifics and closely related heterospecifics. In some cases, phenotypic plasticity may interfere with species recognition. Here, we document a seasonal p...

Animal communication relies on conspicuous signals and compatible signal perception abilities. Good signal perception abilities are particularly important for polymorphic animals where mate choice can be a challenge. Behavioral studies suggest that polymorphic damselflies use their varying body colorations and/or color patterns as communication signal for mate choice and to control mating frequ...

This work is a synthesis of our current understanding of the mechanics, aerodynamics and visually mediated control of dragonfly and damselfly flight, with the addition of new experimental and computational data in several key areas. These are: the diversity of dragonfly wing morphologies, the aerodynamics of gliding flight, force generation in flapping flight, aerodynamic efficiency, comparativ...

Sex-biased dispersal is well known for birds and mammals, typically by females and males, respectively. Little is known about general patterns of sex-biased dispersal in other animal taxa. We reviewed return rates for a model group of invertebrates (damselflies) and explored putative costs and benefits of dispersal by males and females. We used published capture mark recapture data and examined...