A description of the larva of Mesopodagrion tibetanum australe (Odonata: “Megapodagrionidae”)

Abstract

The larva of the genus Mesopodagrion was identified with the help of DNA barcoding and described for the first time. The larvae have flat horizontal gills resembling those of Argiolestidae but the adults lack setae on the shaft of the genital ligula. Molecular data are shown to be useful and necessary in larval identification and should be adopted as a standard tool in future studies.

Keywords:

• Zygoptera
• Megapodagrionidae
• Mesopodagrion tibetanum australe
• larva
• DNA barcoding
• dragonfly

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Junli Xue for helping with the molecular work. I am grateful to the two reviewers and the editor for their valuable remarks and suggestions. This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31572299) and the grant of Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2015FY210300).