Andromorphic female of the dragonfly Neurothemistullia tullia (Drury) (Odonata:Libellulidae), central India
Raymond J. Andrew
Post Graduate Department of
Zoology, Hislop College, Nagpur, Maharashtra 440001, India
rajuandrew@yahoo.com
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3143.155
| ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A9F7F3F4-C42D-4071-B79D-9F823F552496
Editor: Hemant V. Ghate, Modern College, Pune, India Date of
publication: 26 January 2013 (online & print)
Manuscript details: Ms #
o3143 | Received 30 March 2012 | Final received 01 November 2012 | Finally
accepted 14 November 2012
Citation:Andrew, R.J. (2013). Andromorphic female of the dragonfly Neurothemis tullia tullia (Drury)
(Odonata: Libellulidae),
central India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(1): 3571–3573; doi:10.11609/JoTT.o3143.155
Copyright: ©
Andrew 2013. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTTallows unrestricted use of this article in any medium, reproduction and
distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of
publication.
Funding: The
work was self funded.
Competing Interest: None.
Acknowledgements: I thank my students, Nilesh Thaokar and Payal Verma for their help in collection of the sample. I am grateful to Dr. Ms. Dipti R. Christian, Principal, HislopCollege, Nagpur for the laboratory facilities.
For
figures, images, tables -- click here
Most anisopteran libellulid odonates are sexually
dimorphic when mature. The males
acquire bright colouration since coloursand patterns on the wings and body may play an important role in territoriality
and courtship (Andrew et al. 2008). Neurothemis tullia tullia is a common Indian dragonfly
which occurs in large colonies in swamps and heavily-weeded tanks. It lies close to the herbage, perched on
twigs, aquatic weeds along the border not more than five feet above the ground
and has a weak, slow fluttering flight. It is a libellulid which shows an extreme case of sexual dimorphism in colour and patterns on the wings.
In Neurothemis tullia tullia, the male has a
black face and the eyes are blackish-brown above and olive green below. The thorax is black with a mid-dorsal
cream stripe. The basal half of the
wings is opaque blue black which is bordered by a
milky white patch towards the tip. The wing tips are transparent. The abdomen is black with a mid dorsal creamy white stripe on the upper
side. The female differs
significantly from the male in body marking, colourationand wing spots. The face is olive
green while the eyes are pale brown above and pale olive green towards the
sides and below. The thorax is
greenish-yellow with a bright yellow mid dorsal stripe whichis bordered with a black stripe. The wing base is amber yellow while the front edge is blackish-brown
which forms a very large brown black spot. In the hind wing, this spot is irregular and sickle shaped. The wing tips are broadly
blackish-brown. The abdomen is
bright yellow with a broad black band above. The underside is black (Subramanian
2005). Observation of andropmorphs is very rare in Anisopteraand generally restricted to certain genera such as Crocothemis, Neurothemis and Sympetrum (Kumar 1988; Kotarac 1996; Corbet1999; Prasad et al. 2000).
The collection site of this odonatewas the western border of Telenkhedi Pond (2009’N
& 790 9’E) located at the foothills of the Seminary Hillock of
Nagpur City of central India (Image 1). This section of the pond is rich with submerged (Hydrilla sp.), floating (Nymphea sp., Eichornnia sp.) and marginal (Ipomea sp., Eleocharissp., Fimbristylis sp., Cleome sp., Alternanthera sp. and Eriocaulon sp.) aquatic flora. Along with Neurothemis tullia tullia, the other anisopteran libellulids found breeding around this vicinity were Crocothemis servilia, Orthetrum sabina sabina, Rhyothemis variegata variegata, Brachythemis contaminata and Acisoma panorpoides panorpoides. Theodonates were identified with the help of
identification keys provided by Fraser (1936) and aquatic plants were
determined using Ugemuge (1986).
Observation
On 02 November 2010, we were observing the dragonflies ofTelenkhedi Pond (west end) when we noticed a typical
“male” of Neurothemis t. tullia behaving in an unusual manner. It was hovering above the shallow shore
and flying low at regular intervals so as to dip the terminal abdominal segment
in water, which is a typical female ovipositing behaviour of this species.
We managed to collect this specimen and were surprised to
observe that although it appeared like a male, the male secondary copulatory apparatus on the venter of the second and third
abdomen was missing (Image 2). Further observation revealed that it had only two anal appendages, a
typical character of female odonates. Later in the
laboratory we dipped her abdomen in water, mimicking oviposition behaviour and this ‘male-like’ specimen released a
clutch of spherical eggs (Image 3). The shape and size of the eggs was comparable with the eggs deposited by
normal females. We collected the eggs (Image 4) and they developed within an
average period of 11–15 days to produce first larva (or nymph). This specimen was a sexually mature,
gravid andromorphic female of Neurothemist. tullia. Table 1 describes and compares the various colourand wing spot patterns of the andromorphic female
with the normal male and female of Neurothemist. tullia (Image 2).
Discussion
Andromorphs are
very rare in libellulid Anisopteraand their frequency is variable among populations and varies positively with
male density. Andromorphfemales are commonly found in Zygoptera where it
represents true polychromatism (Corbet1999). In Zygoptera,andromorphs are found in 54% of European genera
(Cordero & Andres 1996) and in most cases there isan autosomal locus with sex-limited expression and two or three alleles, one
per phenotype (Cordero & Egido 1998). One of the hypothesis put forward
suggests that andromorphs are male-mimics and for
this reason they are not recognized by mate searching males and therefore,
after first mating they can avoid additional unnecessary mating (Robertson
1985), dedicating this time to feeding and egg maturation. The other hypothesis suggest that andromorphs would be favoured at
high population density, because of its male like appearance would result in
reduced male disturbance, but at lower population density, they have the risk
of never mating (Hinnekint 1987). Although andromorphicfemales are quite common in Zygoptera, very few andromorphic females have been reported in the libellulids (Corbet1999). Till date only four andromorph forms of Neurothemist. tullia have been documented (Lahiri 1979; Asahina 1981; Kumar
1988; Mitra 1991) from the northeastern states of
India and one from central India (Prasad et al. 2000). Although this is the second report of anandromorph female of Neurothemist. tullia from peninsular India;it is for the first time that an andromorphic female
of Neurothemis t. tulliahas been reported in gravid condition with viable eggs. Although andromorphyis extremely uncommon in Neurothemis t. tullia, the potential for andromorphyto evolve in this species clearly exists. Further studies are required to estimate
the frequency of andromorphy in Neurothemist. tullia population and to determine whether
there is sufficient selective pressure for it to be maintained in this species
or whether it is simply an artifact of recurrent mutation.
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