Zygoptera (damselflies)

Code QO029999

A very speciose family of small to medium sized damselflies, common throughout Australia (as elsewhere), and found in a range of habitats though favouring still and slow-flowing waters. The Australian fauna comprises 31 described species. Adult males generally are marked with red and/or blue, the females sand-coloured or brown.

Coenagrionid larvae have large, leaf-like gills without long terminal filaments and with the tracheal branches at an acute angle to the long axis. The gills are held vertically. The labial palps are narrow, often more or less oblong, and not deeply divided. There always are one or more pairs of large setae on the prementum, one or more large setae on the palp, no setae on the moveable hook.

Specimens with exactly one pair of large setae and no smaller setae on the prementum (when fully mature), and with the posterior corner of the head rounded not flared, belong in Protoneuridae ( Nososticta ).

Reference:

Hawking, J.H. (1986) Dragonfly larvae of the River Murray system. Albury-Wodonga Development Corporation Technical Report No. 6., Wodonga.