RESUMO
Female mimicry by males is a widespread phenomenon in several taxa and may be involved in aggression avoidance or facilitated access to resources. In early developmental stages, female mimicry may be a mechanism involved in signalling sexual immaturity or, when coupled with strategies related to visual camouflage, may be involved in the avoidance of male-male agonistic interactions. Here, we addressed whether the delayed colour maturation of a sexual ornament in males of Mnesarete pudica damselflies might be a case of crypsis, female mimicry or both. We analysed how conspecifics and predators perceive the pigmented wings of juvenile males by contrasting the wing spectra against a savannah background and the wings of both juvenile and sexually mature males and females. Our results based on the modelled visual system of conspecifics and predators suggest that the colour maturation of juvenile males may function as both crypsis and female mimicry. We discuss whether these results related to age- and sexual-dichromatism might be a mechanism to avoid unwanted intraspecific interactions or to avoid territorial and aggressive males. We conclude that the female mimicry and crypsis in juvenile males of M. pudica are mechanisms involved in avoidance of predators and unwanted intraspecific interactions, and the signalling of sexual maturity.
Assuntos
Odonatos , Pigmentação , Animais , Cor , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Modelos Biológicos , Caracteres SexuaisRESUMO
Heteragrion gorbi sp. nov. (Zygoptera: Heteragrionidae) is described and diagnosed based on six ââ and one â. The specimens were collected in a stream in a Neotropical savannah fragment in São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil. We present pictures of the holotype and the female. This is a species with blue coloration pattern, rare among its congeners.
Assuntos
Odonatos , Animais , Brasil , Feminino , Masculino , Odonatos/anatomia & histologia , Odonatos/classificação , Pigmentação , Rios , Especificidade da Espécie , Clima TropicalRESUMO
Franciscagrion longispinum Machado Bedê larvae were collected in the São Francisco river historical springs at the Serra da Canastra National Park, Brazil. Here, we describe and illustrate the final instar larvae of this rare and endemic species.
Assuntos
Odonatos , Animais , Brasil , Larva , Nascentes Naturais , RiosRESUMO
Recent expeditions to the Serra da Canastra and Chapada dos Guimarães National Parks in Brazil resulted in the collection of larvae of Argia mollis Hagen in Selys, 1865 and A. smithiana Calvert, 1909. Thus, here we describe the last instar larvae of these two Argia species from the Brazilian Cerrado.