Female color polymorphism ofIschnura capreolusHagen, 1861 (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) with notes on behavior and ontogenetic color changes

Female prereproductive coloration reduces mating harassment in damselflies

“…data), suggesting that red coloration has evolved in this genus to reduce prereproductive mating harassment. Furthermore, conspicuous coloration in sexually immature females is known to occur in other genera, for example, Ischnura capreolus, Argiocnemis rubescens, and Mortonagrion aborense (Vilela et al 2017); however, the adaptive significance of their conspicuous coloration is yet to be tested.…”

“…Rather, mating would incur costs for both males and females, such as increased predation risk (Almbro and Kullberg 2008;Kemp 2012) and reduced foraging time (Arnqvist and Nilsson 2000), that would consequently reduce fitness and fecundity upon adulthood (Kreiter and Wise 2001;Taborsky 2006;Zajitschek et al 2009). Prereproductive females can avoid mating harassment by staying away from the breeding area (Hinnekint 1987;Corbet 1999), displaying refusal behavior (Chan et al 2009), signaling unwillingness via pheromones (Ferrero et al 2013), mimicking male coloration (Hammers et al 2009;Huang and Reinhard 2012;Willink et al 2019), or avoiding male detection by inconspicuous coloration (Baldauf et al 2011;Fincke 2015;Vilela et al 2017). Dull coloration further reduces predator and prey detection, which in turn increases survival and foraging (Outomuro et al 2017;McQueen et al 2019).…”

“…2011; Fincke 2015; Vilela et al. 2017). Dull coloration further reduces predator and prey detection, which in turn increases survival and foraging (Outomuro et al.…”

A further study on Franciscobasis Machado & Bedê, 2016 (Odonata: Coenagrionidae), a newly described genus from Minas Gerais, Brazil

“…franciscoi females) that makes an angle of almost 90° with the black/pale limit in mesepisternum and mesinfraepisternum: A pattern observed in all females examined from both species (Fig 2). In Coenagrionidae, mainly Ischnura , females are known to undergo a complete coloration change from emergence to sexual maturation, being light green, violet or orange as young females, and becoming brownish and black as they grow old [8,9]. Thus, we suggest that this pattern of ontogenetic color change may occur with Franciscobasis females as well.…”

“…Thus, faced with: (i) The great morphological resemblance of both females, (ii) the fact that no F . sonia males were found, (iii) the common occurrence of female polymorphism cases in Coenagrionidae [6–13], and (iv) the evidence that females can go through a complete coloration change over their ontogenetic development [9,14,15], we studied F . franciscoi and F .…”