Megalagrion is a genus of damselflies in the family Coenagrionidae. It contains approximately 26 species, all of which are endemic to Hawaiʻi. Megalagrion damselflies are the only native damselflies in Hawaiʻi, and are referred to as "pinapinao" in ʻ ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. Other endemic Hawaiian Odonata are the dragonflies Anax strenuus and Nesogonia blackburni, which are referred to as "pinao".
Megalagrion | |
---|---|
M. blackburni | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Odonata |
Suborder: | Zygoptera |
Family: | Coenagrionidae |
Genus: | Megalagrion McLachlan, 1883 |
Species | |
See text |
Nymphal Megalagrion live in widely diverse habitats, including the expected streams and pools. Megalagrion also exploit some surprising habitats such as plant leaf axils of the 'ie'ie vine, waterfall faces and seeps, and even damp fern litter outside of the water. M. oahuense is the only species of damselfly whose naiad is terrestrial, living in damp leaf litter under banks of uluhe ferns until metamorphosis.
Many species of Megalagrion are in danger due to habitat loss and predation by non-native fish such as mosquitofish. To protect them, non-native fish should never be released in Hawaiian streams.
The genus contains the following species:
This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article Megalagrion, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.