Three new species of Peristicta Hagen in Selys from Brazil are described and illustrated: P. janiceae from Minas Gerais State (Diamantina, Gouvêa, Lagoa Santa, Serra do Caraça, Serra do Cipó, Urobotanga), P. jalmosi from Goiás State (Chapada dos Veadeiros, Reserva da Universidade de Brasília) and Minas Gerais State (Urobotanga, Lagoa Santa, Ponte Nova, São João del Rey,) and P. muzoni from Mato...

A commented list of fossil Odonata from the Oligocene outcrop of Rott is given, together with descriptions of new traces of oviposition in plant tissues, very similar to ichnotaxa already known from the early Eocene Laguna del Hunco floras of Patagonia. The joint presences of odonatan larvae and traces of oviposition demonstrate the autochthony of these insects in the palaeolake of Rott, confir...

DNA barcoding has become a promising means for identifying organisms of all life stages. Currently, phenetic approaches and tree-building methods have been used to define species boundaries and discover 'cryptic species'. However, a universal threshold of genetic distance values to distinguish taxonomic groups cannot be determined. As an alternative, DNA barcoding approaches can be 'character b...

thirteen species in five genera of the libellulidae family were collected in a survey of dragonflies (odonata) of shiraz and its vicinity, involving 19 locations, the presented records of the libellulid dragonflies taken from the fars province comprise a first time collection of two genera, sympetrum and pantala, and seven species, orthetrum anceps schnider, orthetrum taeniolatum schneider, ort...

Weather extremes may have strong effects on biodiversity, as known from theoretical and modelling studies. Predicted negative effects of increased weather variation are found only for a few species, mostly plants and birds in empirical studies. Therefore, we investigated correlations between weather variability and patterns in occupancy, local colonisations and local extinctions (metapopulation...

Sinoeuthemis daohugouensis gen. et sp. n. is the first record of the isophlebiopteran family Euthemistidae from Middle Jurassic of northeast China, while previously this family was restricted to the early Late Jurassic Kazakhstan. This new finding allows us to emend the family diagnosis with hindwing characters. This new species shows a mixture of characters alternatively present in different g...

1. Effective population sizes (N(e)) and migration rates (m) are critical evolutionary parameters that impact on population survival and determine the relative influence of selection and genetic drift. While the parameter m is well-studied in animal populations, N(e) remains challenging to measure and consequently is only rarely estimated, particularly in insect taxa. 2. We used demographic and...

Sarasaeschna chiangchinlii sp. nov. collected from Daxi, Taoyuan County in northern Taiwan is described and diagnosed. Judging from male penile structure, this species is considered to belong to the pryeri-group of its genus. It is easily distinguished from all known congeners in having peculiar sickle-shaped cerci in male. The habitats of S. chiangchinlii are mainly shaded brooks in lowland ar...

The present study is an effort to document bio-geographical distribution for Zygoptera of Pakistan. Damselflies were collected throughout the country and territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir during 2004-2009. A total of 2692 specimens were collected yielding 9 families, 21 genera, and 48 species and subspecies. Three of these species, Libellago lineata lineata (Burmeister), Elattoneura atkinsoni...

The larva of Palaeosynthemis Förster, 1903, based on P. cyrene (Lieftinck, 1953), is described and illustrated for the first time. A diagnosis of the genus is given. A larval generic key to all known non-New Caledonian genera of Synthemistidae is provided.