The Beatty Collection houses a variety of odonates collected primarily throughout North America and Mexico. Integrating these specimens into the Frost’s collection, my colleagues and I have uncovered several unique insects that fall outside of this range and sometimes outside of the order. Sorting through a cache of undetermined specimens, I stumbled upon an ode that, at first glance, appeared to share hallmark characteristics with both Zygoptera and Anisoptera.
The specimen, shown below, exhibits the dumbbell-shaped head and slender wings often attributed to damselflies, but also sports the bulbous eyes and stout abdomen associated with dragonflies.
A little investigation into the puzzling specimen revealed that the insect was of the genus Libellago, a member of Zygoptera, within the family Chlorocyphidae. The exact species, however, remains to be determined.
Libellago, commonly referred to as “gems,” are distributed across Southeast Asia, often seen flitting around open and calm bodies of water (Hämäläinen. 2002). Our specimen, in particular, was collected on the Nilgiri Hills in Kallar, South India.
Finding specimens like Libellago among the natives of the collection always serves as a refreshing reminder of just how diverse even some of the most familiar taxa can be.
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