Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2022 | 14(6): 21327–21330

 

 

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7662.14.6.21327-21330

#7662 | Received 16 September 2021 | Final received 19 May 2022 | Finally accepted 01 June 2022

 

 

 

Report of Euphaea pseudodispar Sadasivan & Bhakare, 2021 (Insecta: Odonata) from Kerala, India

 

P.K. Muneer 1, M. Madhavan 2  & A. Vivek Chandran 3

 

1,2 Ferns Nature Conservation Society, PB No. 28, Mananthavady, Wayanad, Kerala 670645, India.

2 Tholpetty eco-development committee, Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala 670646, India.

3 Society for Odonate Studies, Vellooparampil, Kuzhimattom PO, Kottayam, Kerala 686533, India.

3 Department of Geology and Environmental Science, Christ College, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur, Kerala 680125, India.

1 muneerputhukudy@gmail.com,2 madhavantholpetty@gmail.com, 3 avivekchandran2@gmail.com

 

 

Editor: Ashish D. Tiple, Vidyabharati College, Wardha, India.      Date of publication: 26 June 2022 (online & print)

 

Citation: Muneer, P.K., M. Madhavan & A.V. Chandran (2022). Report of Euphaea pseudodispar Sadasivan & Bhakare, 2021 (Insecta: Odonata) from Kerala, India.  Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(6): 21327–21330. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7662.14.6.21327-21330

 

Copyright: © Muneer et al. 2022. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.  JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

 

Funding: None.

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: The authors thank Society for Odonate Studies (SOS), Kerala for the encouragement to undertake field studies on odonates. The corresponding author would like to thank Suryanarayanan T.B. for his help in the laboratory.

 

 

 

Euphaea pseudodispar Sadasivan & Bhakare, 2021 is a newly described damselfly in the family Euphaeidae. It was described along with E. thosegharensis Sadasivan & Bhakare, 2021 based on specimens collected from Thoseghar, Satara district, Maharashtra, northern Western Ghats, India (Bhakare et al. 2021). The genus Euphaea Selys, 1840 currently has 35 species distributed in the Indo-Malaya (Paulson et al. 2021). India has seven known species of Euphaea, five of them distributed in the Western Ghats and two in the northeastern region. The two newly described species, E. pseudodispar and E. thosegharensis were considered to be confined to the northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra (Bhakare et al. 2021). We report E. pseudodispar from Thirunelly, Wayanad district, Kerala, at a distance of more than 650 km from the type locality (Image 1).

Thirunelly (11.9117°N 75.9933°E, 850 m) is a small temple town adjoining the forests of North Wayanad Forest Division in Kerala, southern India. River Kalindi originates in the Brahmagiri hills, flows through the temple town briefly and re-enters the forest. Odonate species commonly encountered in this stretch of the river include Neurobasis chinensis (Linnaeus, 1758), Vestalis apicalis Selys, 1873, Heliocypha bisignata (Hagen in Selys, 1853), Euphaea fraseri (Laidlaw, 1920), Copera vittata (Selys, 1863), Prodasineura verticalis (Selys, 1860), Pseudagrion rubriceps Selys, 1876, Anax immaculifrons Rambur, 1842, Gomphidia kodaguensis Fraser, 1923, Hylaeothemis apicalis Fraser, 1924, and Neurothemis fulvia (Drury, 1773).

On 22 August 2021, during a walk along the river Kalindi, we encountered three species of Euphaea, viz., fraseri, dispar, and pseudodispar (Image 2). The river was in full spate and the authors recorded 40 individuals of E. pseudodispar, 35 individuals of E. fraseri, and four individuals of E. dispar in traversing 1 km along its bank (Image 3). Later, one male E. pseudodispar was collected for the detailed study of morphology and structure of secondary genitalia. The specimen was deposited at the insect collections of the De-partment of Geology and Environmental Science, Christ College, Thrissur district, Kerala. Photographs of live specimen were taken with a Nikon D850 camera and Nikkor 105 mm macro lens (Image 3). Secondary genitalia was studied under a Labomed Luxeo 6Z stereomicroscope (Images 5, Figure 1).

Material examined: CC.G & ES.O12, 1 male, Thirunelly (11.911°N 75.993°E, 850 m), 31.x.2021, coll. Muneer P.K.

Description: Total length: 48 mm, abdomen: 38 mm, forewing: 34 mm, hindwing: 33 mm.

Head: Labium black; labrum pale bluish-white with a median black ‘tongue’ like mark; Mandible pale bluish-white with an upper transverse black streak; anteclypeus, postclypeus, antefrons, & postfrons black and genae pale yellowish-white. Eyes, antennae, and vertex black.

Thorax: Prothorax matte black with two yellowish spots. Ground colour of thorax orange-red; dorsal carina black; mesepisternum matte black; humeral stripe yellowish-orange; antehumeral stripe pale yellow and thin; mesepimeron yellow superiorly and orange inferiorly, and encloses a central broad black band. Legs: extensor surface of foreleg femora smoky black; hind and middle legs red; all joints black. Wings: hyaline, veins black; cubital space with three cross veins in all wings; distal fourth of hindwings coloured black.

Abdomen: Proximal segments reddish-orange and distal ones black, the transition happening on S6. S2 with black, rounded genital vesicle; penis with a single seta on each side. Hair tufts present on central part of sternite and lateral aspects of tergite on S8 and lateral tufts on proximal aspect of tergite of S9. On S9, the gonopore margin is oval; gonocoxae with blunt apices, no spine. In lateral view, the sternite of S9 extends mid-ventrally like a beak. Anal appendages: General structure as in the genus; cerci and paraprocts fully black.

The studied male specimen differed from the holotype in the following details: the extensor surface of the foreleg femora had only a smoky black colouration over the basal red and the distal fourth of the hindwings were coloured black instead of the distal fifth.

Three Euphaea species were known to occur in Kerala before the current observation. These include E. cardinalis (Fraser, 1924) seen in mountain streams south of the Palghat gap in the Anamalai, Palani, and Agasthyamalai hills; E. dispar Rambur, 1842 confined to the mountain streams north of the Palghat gap from South Kanara and Coorg to the Nilgiris; and E. fraseri (Laidlaw, 1920) distributed throughout the foothills of the Western Ghats (Fraser 1934; Subramanian et al. 2018). This study adds a fourth Euphaea species, E. pseudodispar to the odonate fauna of Kerala state. In Thirunelly, where it co-occurred with two of its congenerics, E. pseudodispar stood out because of its thoracic colouration and intermediate size, E. fraseri being considerably smaller, and E. dispar slightly larger. This observation accentuates the need for undertaking more rigorous field surveys in the Western Ghats in order to have a better understanding of the distribution of its Odonata.

 

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References

 

Bhakare, S.D., V.P. Nair, P.A. Pawar, S.H. Bhoite & K. Sadasivan (2021). Two new species of Euphaea Selys, 1840 (Odonata: Zygoptera: Euphaeidae) from Northern Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(5): 18200–18214. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6579.13.5.18200-18214

Fraser, F.C. (1934). The Fauna of British- India, including Ceylon and Burma, Odonata, Vol. II. Taylor and Francis Ltd., London, XXIV+398 pp.

Paulson, D., M. Schorr & C. Deliry (2021). World Odonata List, University of Puget Sound. https://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/academic-resources/slater-museum/biodiversity-resources/dragonflies/world-odonata-list2/ Accessed on 14 November 2021.

Subramanian, K.A., K.G. Emiliyamma, R. Babu, C. Radhakrishnan & S.S. Talmale (2018). Atlas of Odonata (Insecta) of the Western Ghats. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 417 pp.