Two new species of damselflies:
Two new species of damselflies named Konkan Shadowdamsel and Crimson Shadowdamsel have been discovered in the Western Ghats by researchers from Maharashtra and Kerala.
- They are two new species of damselflies.
- The species — Konkan Shadowdamsel, discovered in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district, and Crimson Shadowdamsel, discovered in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram district — belong to the group commonly called ‘Shadowdamsels’ because of their affinity for well-shaded forest habitats.
- The Crimson Shadowdamsel has a reddish body, and the Konkan Shadowdamsel has a coffee-brown ground colouration.
Shadowdamsels usually only thrive in pristine habitats and small streams. - They can act as indicators of the health of our forests. They are pollution indicators as well.
- Many of them are microendemics restricted to certain hill ranges within the Western Ghats.
- Damselflies are a group of predatory, aerial insects that are in the order Odonata.
- They are found mainly near shallow, freshwater habitats and are graceful fliers with slender bodies and long, filmy, net-veined wings.
- They are generally smaller, more delicate, and fly weakly in comparison with dragonflies.
