Abstract Damselflies and dragonflies are well-known hosts of the West Palaearctic biting midge Forcipomyia paludis . Females this ectoparasitic dipteran mainly cling to host’s wings, sucking hemolymph from wing veins. The midges firmly attached surface with specialized tarsi, thus not being flung away during flight maneuvers. As for another ceratopogonid— F. odonatophila New Guinea—had been sug...

Abstract Metacommunity models describe species occupancy frequency distribution (hereinafter ‘SOFD’). Our goal is to present how the differences in eight macroinvertebrate orders dispersal ability affect SOFD patterns. A total of 293 from were observed 14 eutrophic lakes southern Finland. Species ranged 1 14. About 30% (89 out 293) found only one lake, yielding a surprisingly high number rare s...

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 Ischnura elegans, which shows thre...

The extensive papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) swamps of East and Central Africa form a habitat of great ecological importance due to their extent, the extreme and chronic hypoxia of the interior swamp, and the unique assemblages of water-breathing insects that characterize these communities, including zygopteran (damselfly) larvae. The major goal of this study was to quantify physiological and behavi...