Rambur's forktail

Rambur's forktail
Male
Female, orange-form
Both on Grand Cayman
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Odonata
Suborder: Zygoptera
Family: Coenagrionidae
Genus: Ischnura
Species: I. ramburii
Binomial name
Ischnura ramburii
(Selys, 1850) [1]

Rambur's forktail (Ischnura ramburii) is a member of the damselfly family Coenagrionidae. Males are green with blue on abdominal segments 8 and 9. Females are orange-red, olive green, or similar to males in coloration.[2] This is the most widespread New World Ischnura, occurring throughout the Americas from the United States to Chile, as well as Hawaii and the Antilles.[3]

Habitat

Ponds, lakes, marshes, and slow streams with vegetation and sunlight are its main habitat.[2] Damselfly nymphs never live in salt water, but I. ramburii nymphs have been observed in brackish and even sulphurous waters.[4]

Mating

mating
female blue form

John Edward Lloyd qualified the mating of this species as "enigmatic": the male grasps the female's head with the terminal appendages of its abdomen while the female seeks and absorbs the sperm with its gonopore. He hypothesised that this "wheel" could have evolved in order to prevent females from escaping during the copulation.[5]

Etymology

Edmond de Sélys Longchamps named this damselfly in honor of Jules Pierre Rambur,[6] an entomologist 12 years his senior. Rambur's collection of insects was one of several that was incorporated into that of Sélys.

References

  1. ↑ "Ischnura ramburii". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
  2. 1 2 Abbott, J. C. (2005). Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas and the South-Central United States. Princeton University Press. p. 140. ISBN 0-691-11364-5.
  3. ↑ Ischnura ramburii. BugGuide.net
  4. ↑ Calvert, P. P (October 1893). "Catalogue of the Odonata (Dragonflies) of the Vicinity of Philadelphia". American Entomological Society: 204.
  5. ↑ Lloyd, J. E. (March 1979). "Mating Behavior and Natural Selection". The Florida Entomologist. 62 (1): 17–34. doi:10.2307/3494039.
  6. ↑ Paulson, D. R.; Dunkle, S. W. (14 April 2009). "A Checklist of North American Odonata": 21.
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