Colombia is one of the megadiverse countries in the world, but paradoxically it is one of the less explored. The recent red list assessments show the country has the highest number of endangered species in the Neotropical region. Nevertheless, the sampling effort is low especially in protected areas, which probably can harbor some of the rare species included in the red list. As a result of recent surveys in six protected areas of Colombia, we report twelve new records and describe Cora verapax sp. nov., a rare species, collected after more than 300 days of field surveys at the National Natural Park Tatamá. In addition, we compiled and mapped published Odonata records from 2001 until now for Colombian protected areas (136 spp.). Among the new records, some species were formerly known as endemics from Panama and Ecuador, and five species are reported for the first time inside protected areas, showing the importance of surveys in these special territories and bringing new data for conservation actions, as red list assessment or future management plans.
The behavior of Mesamphiagrion laterale (Selys, 1876) is described based upon 2430 hours of observation. A total of 2820 individuals were observed for 270 days from 2014 to 2015 using mark-recapture. Probabilities of resight, highest reproductive activity, time-perch and time of perch-temperature were statistically analyzed. Mesamphiagrion laterale is not a territorial species, the individuals perch on grass, trees, garbage, ground, and rocks, they feed on hemipterans, mosquitoes, spiders and other damselflies, and are prey to spiders and birds. Conspecific siege and interspecific interactions by perch were observed. No courtship was observed. During tandem, which lasted for 3-90 min, the ventral side of the male's abdominal segment 2 was in contact with the female's abdominal segments 8-10 until a wheel was formed. We observed three tandem pair combinations: sexually mature males and females, immature males with mature females, and immature males and females. While copulation lasted from 7 to 20 min, oviposition lasted from 12 to 15 min. Irrespective of male presence, oviposition occurred in submerged or emerged areas of Eichornia crassipes. We recorded the highest reproductive activity between 12:00 and 12:35 (Colombia Time-COT, UTC-5). Above 20°C, a larger perching area close to the water allows more reproductive events. However, a more extensive canopy cover impedes achieving optimal reproductive temperatures. Species interactions within this community may be explained by temporal and spatial niche partitioning.
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