Guwahati: Damselflies are exquisite creatures renowned for their captivating beauty and graceful flight. With their slender bodies and intricately patterned wings, damselflies showcase remarkable colours, ranging from vibrant blues and greens to earthy browns.
Researchers from different institutions have stumbled upon a new species of damselflies in the Northeast known as ‘Shade-damselflies’, characterised by their elongated forms and preference for dimly lit forested areas while surveying forests in the Northeast in the last decade.
Researchers have recently discovered two new species of damselflies from the states of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, and a new report for India, earlier found in Bhutan. Spearheaded by Dr Krushnamegh Kunte, the research team includes Shantanu Joshi, Dr Dattaprasad Sawant, Ujwala Pawar, and Vivek Sarkar. The researchers had to collaborate with museums to acquire images to help them distinguish from other species.
The species found in East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, is known as Protosticta khaisa, the one from Arunachal Pradesh is known as Yunnanosticta siangi, and there was a first report of P. samtsensis from East Siang & Upper Siang districts, Arunachal Pradesh, earlier known from Bhutan.
Researchers associated with the study said in 2017 while conducting fieldwork in Sohra, researcher Vivek Sarkar of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) stumbled upon a damselfly species.
“While he was discussing with entomologist Shantanu Joshi on the damselfly species, it became apparent that this discovery was distinctly different from all other known Protosticta species. Through meticulous examination of caudal appendages, genitalia morphology, and wing venation, the ‘Khasi Shadowdamsel’ was a new species to science,” they said.
“The Protosticta species of Northeast India were poorly known as the material used to describe them was deposited in foreign museums. But, we could acquire images of holotypes from the Natural History Museum, Florence, Italy and the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, USA, which aided in distinguishing it from other species,” they added.
Individuals were observed perching a few feet high on vegetation and tended to fly up into the canopy when disturbed. This species was only observed along one stream despite extensive surveys in the neighbouring areas.
The researchers have dedicated the species to the Khasi people for their active role in restoring and conserving habitats.
Unique Damselfly
While conducting biodiversity surveys in the Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, Shantanu Joshi came across a unique damselfly.
“Another remarkable aspect of this paper is the serendipitous discovery of Yunnanosticta siangi. We were surveying some of the remotest areas of Siang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh. This was the last day of fieldwork and we were in an area with dark, small streams. I have done a lot of fieldwork in NE India, but this particular stream was probably the most difficult place to sample. Leeches, mosquitoes and ticks which were all common could easily be ignored, but ‘dam dums’ are a different ball game. Their annoyance cannot be described in words,” Shantanu said.
He further said the stream looked extremely promising for odonates but even after an hour, I had not seen anything apart from locally common species. Then suddenly, in the undergrowth, I saw a thin dark damselfly with a blue tip flying around.
” I initially thought this to be a Drepanosticta but later figured that this had to be something unique,” he said, adding that the photographs of this insect did not resemble any known species in India or globally.
The photographs were shown to Dr Dattaprasad Sawant, a doctor and entomologist. After comparing it with a plethora of species worldwide, Dr Sawant deemed this finding extremely rare, categorising it under the genus Yunnanosticta’.
“This decision was further corroborated by renowned Dutch entomologist Rory Dow, and the position of the species within the Yunnanosticta genus was confirmed. The discovery in the Upper Siang district led to the naming of this finding Yunnanosticta siangi drawing from the Siang River, another name for the River Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh,” Shantanu said.
The cultural connection of Arunachal Pradesh with the Brahmaputra River led to the apt naming of this discovery as ‘Siang Shadowdamsel’. “The distinctive wing venation, morphology, genitalia structure, and abdominal marking features of this species make it markedly different from all other known species. Before this, no Yunnanosticta species had been identified in India. This genus was originally described from Yunnan, China with two known species,” the team said.
This species was observed exclusively in dark areas of small, shaded streams along small tributaries of the Subansiri River at 900–1300 metres. Individuals were observed resting on bushes very close to or over the stream, staying close to the forest floor.
New Record
After these two significant research endeavours, another noteworthy discovery has been added to India’s checklist. Dr Krushnamegh Kunte and team have found Protosticta samtsensis from the Upper Siang District, a new record for India. This species was initially discovered in Bhutan and had not been previously recorded in India. However, this research has provided conclusive evidence of its presence in India. Following this research, the total count of dragonflies and damselflies in India has surpassed 500 species.
Krushnamegh Kunte’s laboratory has made a significant contribution to this research. Ujwala Pawar, Viraj Navge, and Fahim Khan also played crucial roles in the research expedition in Upper Siang. Ujwala Pawar meticulously conducted the photography of all specimens under a microscope. Shantanu Joshi and Dattaprasad Sawant worked on species identification. Joshi completed the writing task. Sawant outlined all the illustrations required for the research. K. Kunte arranged the permissions and all other administrative work required for the research through the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru.
Shantanu Joshi is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Arkansas, USA. Dr Dattaprasad Sawant is currently working at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Sindhudurg. Ujwala Pawar is a student at the NCBS, Bengaluru. Vivek Sarkar is a graduate student at the WII and works on biodiversity in the Himalayas. Dr Krushnamegh Kunte is an Associate Professor at the NCBS, Bengaluru and is recognised as one of the world’s eminent researchers.
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