Testing the predictions of reinforcement: long-term empirical data from a damselfly mottled hybrid zone.

Theoretical work suggests that reinforcement can cause the strengthening of prezygotic isolation in sympatry by mitigating the costs of maladaptive hybridization. However, only a handful of studies have simultaneously tested multiple predictions of this theory in natural populations. We investigated reinforcement in a mottled hybrid zone between the damselflies Ischnura elegans and I.

A red flag: an experimental analysis of the function of pink colouration in males of (Odonata: Calopterygidae).

Males display phenotypic characteristics that may be associated with their quality, allowing non-random mating and post-copulatory female choice. In the damselfly , males have a conspicuous pink colouration in the underside of abdominal segments 8-10, which they exhibit during pre- and post-copulatory courtship. We hypothesized that this colouration functions to increase male mating success and/or to elicit females to oviposit.

A Review of the Density, Biomass, and Secondary Production of Odonates.

Freshwater insects are highly significant as ecosystem service providers, contributing to provisioning services, supporting services, and cultural services. Odonates are dominant predators in many freshwater systems, becoming top predators in fishless ecosystems. One service that odonates provide is the export of matter and energy from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems.

Sex wars: a female genital spine forces male damselflies to shorten copulation duration.

In some species, males use weapons to harm females, increasing their short-term fitness. Here we show that females can use genital adaptations against males. Females of the damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum have a conspicuous vulvar spine on the eighth abdominal segment, which contacts with the male during copulation.

Nesobasis rito sp. nov. (Zygoptera: Coenagrionidae), a new species of forest damselfly from Vanua Levu, Fiji.

Nesobasis rito sp. nov. (Holotype , Fiji, Vanua Levu, Drawa, 31 v 2018, A.

Alternative reproductive strategies in black-winged territorial males of (Odonata, Thaumatoneuridae).

Alternative reproductive strategies are commonly associated with male dimorphism. In , a species of damselfly whose males are dimorphic in wing coloration, black-and-white-winged (BW) males defend territories, while hyaline-winged (HW) males usually play the role of satellites. We found that several BW males can sometimes share a territory, and we hypothesized that within this morph there are two alternative tactics: submissive and dominant.

Frequency Dependence and Ecological Drift Shape Coexistence of Species with Similar Niches.

The coexistence of ecologically similar species might be counteracted by ecological drift and demographic stochasticity, both of which erode local diversity. With niche differentiation, species can be maintained through performance trade-offs between environments, but trade-offs are difficult to invoke for species with similar ecological niches. Such similar species might then go locally extinct due to stochastic ecological drift, but there is little empirical evidence for such processes.

Retracted: The evolutionary history of colour polymorphism in Ischnura damselflies.

The above article from Journal of Evolutionary Biology, published online on 24 May 2018 in Wiley Online Library (http://wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted on the request of the authors and with the agreement of the Journal's Editor in Chief Wolf Blanckenhorn and John Wiley & Sons, following disagreement on potential corrections to the article after publication. The decision to retract followed significant issues with the methods and analyses of the manuscript that were originally not uncovered during peer-review, but which were subsequently brought to the Journal's attention following publication of the Article on Early View.

Alternative reproductive strategies and the maintenance of female color polymorphism in damselflies.

Genetic polymorphisms are powerful model systems to study the maintenance of diversity in nature. In some systems, polymorphisms are limited to female coloration; these are thought to have arisen as a consequence of reducing male mating harassment, commonly resulting in negative frequency-dependent selection on female color morphs. One example is the damselfly , which shows three female color morphs and strong sexual conflict over mating rates.