Pachydiplax longipennis
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Pachydiplax longipennis , male |
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
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| Brewer , 1868 | ||||||||||||
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| Pachydiplax longipennis | ||||||||||||
| ( Burmester , 1839) |
Pachydiplax longipennis is the only kind of dragonflies - genus Pachydiplax the subfamily Sympetrinae . She inhabits large parts of North America.
features
Construction of the Imago
The imago reaches a length of 28 to 45 millimeters, with 23 to 35 millimeters being on the abdomen . The face of P. longipennis is white, while in adults the forehead is metallic blue. The compound eyes are sparkling blue or green in the males, whereas in the females they are reddish brown.
The underside of the thorax is predominantly brown, but has light stripes on the sides. The sides are light green with three brown stripes across the full width. In contrast to other species, the Pachydiplax longipennis has no transverse veins under the pterostigma .
The hind wings are between 30 and 43 millimeters long. The fore and hind wings are transparent except for a dark brown to yellowish shade at the base, but can also be yellowish. The abdomen is black except for yellow lines on segments three to eight, but becomes grayish-bluish with age. The abdomen of the females is much shorter than that of the males.
Construction of the larva
The larva reaches a length of 18 to 21 millimeters. It is brownish on the back while the underside is greenish. The round eyes are arranged laterally at the bottom of the head, and the abdomen ends rather bluntly. The paired side plates (ventrolateral plates) of the eleventh abdominal segment , the so-called paraproct , are smooth when viewed from the side.
Similar species
Adult males look very similar to the species Erythemis simplicicollis and Erythemis collocata . However, they differ from these in the lack of patterning of the thorax. In females there is a risk of confusion with Erythrodiplax berenice , which can be distinguished by its conspicuous ovipositor . The representatives of the genus Micrathyria are also very similar to P. longipennis , but have green dots on the seventh segment of the abdomen.
Way of life
Reproduction and development
The pairing, which takes place in flight, takes between half a minute and two minutes. Then the female flies alone to lay her eggs, while the male monitors it from a distance. The 300 to 700 eggs are deposited by tapping the tip of the abdomen into the water in places with thick vegetation . This takes about 35 seconds. Females that are not mating or laying eggs stay far away from the water. The eggs and larvae are very sensitive to drought and need more than 11 months for the dragonfly to complete development.
habitat
Representatives of this type can be found especially near lakes, ponds and rivers with slow flow rates. They are rarely found above 900 meters above sea level.
The larvae live in dense underwater vegetation and lie in wait for their prey instead of actively hunting them. This protects them from their enemies. Furthermore, they get along so well with a low oxygen content in the water that in Florida it is used together with larvae of the species Erythemis simplicicollis and Perithemis tenera seminolesie as an indicator of poor water quality.
nutrition
Like all dragonfly larvae, P. longipennis is predatory. It feeds relatively indiscriminately by all sorts of aquatic invertebrates such as aquatic insect larvae and amphipods . But tadpoles and small fish are also captured. The imago eats almost all flying insects with armor that is not too thick. These include mosquitoes , flies , mayflies , butterflies , moths and flying ants and termites .
Spread and time of flight
The species colonizes large parts of North America from southern Canada to Mexico . It is missing in the great basin . It is also native to the Bahamas , Bermuda and Belize . Your flight time extends over the whole year. The individuals in spring are larger than those in autumn. In Europe, however, the animal is not native and sightings such as the one in September 1999 on the Sedco 706 oil platform off the Shetland Islands are based on animals that were accidentally imported through delivery.
Protection status
Pachydiplax longipennis has protection status G5 worldwide , which means that it is classified as a large, widespread and non-endangered species. It received this status on December 30, 1985. In the USA it has the nationally equivalent protection status N5. In Canada, however, it is rated lower with N4. This means that while the population is currently considered good and the species is considered safe, there will be long-term concerns. Protection status has also been granted at the level of many states in the USA and Canada. These are shown in the graphic on the right.
Naming
English names
While Pachydiplax longipennis has no common name in German, it is called Blue Dasher or Blue Pirate in English .
Scientific names
The species was first described by Burmeister in 1839 under the name Libellula longipennis using a female from Mexico. It is longi from the Latin, meaning long, while pennis the Greek root word for wing is. This holotype is in the Halle Zoological Collection . Another description followed three years later by Rambur under the name Libellula socia .
The animal got its current name when WF Kirby used it in 1889 as a generotype of the genus Pachydiplax established by Brauer in 1868 .
literature
Initial descriptions
- Burmeister: Handbook of Entomology . tape 2 , p. 850 .
- Rambur: Histoire naturelle des insectes névroptères . S. 96 .
Secondary literature
- Jill Silsby: Dragonflies of the World . The National History Museum, 2001, ISBN 0-565-09165-4 .
Secondary academic literature and articles
- Henrik Steinmann: World Catalog of Odonata . Volume II (Anisoptera). de Gruyter, 1997, ISBN 3-11-014934-6 .
- Darold P. Batzer, Scott A. Wissinger, Russell Ben Rader (Eds.): Invertebrates in Freshwater Wetlands of North America: Ecology and Management . John Wiley & Sons, 1999, ISBN 0-471-29258-3 , pp. 347 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Henrik Steinmann: World Catalog of Odonata . Volume II (Anisoptera). de Gruyter, 1997, ISBN 3-11-014934-6 , p. 464 .
- ^ Garrison, von Ellenrieder , Louton: Dragonfly Genera of the New World . The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2006, ISBN 0-8018-8446-2 , pp. 265 f .
- ↑ a b c d http://odonatacentral.bfl.utexas.edu/fieldguide/species.asp?taxaid=286 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (April 18, 2006)
- ↑ a b c d e Mark Lung, Stefan Sommer: Pachydiplax longipennis. Retrieved April 18, 2006 .
- ↑ a b Jerrell James Daigle: Florida Dragonflies (Anisoptera): A Species Key to the Aquatic Larval Stages . In: Technical Series . 12, No. 1, November 1992.
- ↑ Darold P. Batzer, Scott A. Wissinger, Russell Ben Rader (eds.): Invertebrates in Freshwater Wetlands of North America: Ecology and Management . John Wiley & Sons, 1999, ISBN 0-471-29258-3 , pp. 347 .
- ^ Jill Silsby: Dragonflies of the World . The National History Museum, 2001, ISBN 0-565-09165-4 , pp. 180 .
- ^ Adrian Parr: Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis on an oil rig in the North Sea . In: Atropos . 10, April 2000, pp. 3-5.
- ↑ NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life. NatureServe, February 2006, accessed March 25, 2006 .
- ^ Henrik Steinmann: World Catalog of Odonata . Volume II (Anisoptera). de Gruyter, 1997, ISBN 3-11-014934-6 , p. 542 f .
