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In species of similar shape and size, biometric analyses make it possible to establish differences. Within one species, biometrics can help researchers to detect differences between populations and analyze their adaptations to environmental conditions. Until now little was known about the biometrics of the Iberian populations of Boyeria irene (Odonata: Aeshnidae), a large species living mainly in southern Europe. Eight biometric variables were studied in male and female exuviae of B. irene collected in three rivers of the Iberian Peninsula, with the objective of ascertaining which are the most suitable populations of this species to study. An analysis of principal components (PCA) shows that lengths of the epiproct, paraproct and prementum are the most influential in each of the three populations. The other variables (head width, body length, length of the gonapophyses, maximum and minimum width of the prementum) proved not to be relevant in this context.

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This feature is phenotypically plastic and larger where there are predators, which does not incur costs such as a longer larval development time or increase in the body size of F-0 larvae (Johansson, 2002). The larvae of Cordulegaster boltonii (Donovan, 1807) behave like burrowers (Corbet, 2004) and their physiognomy has been analysed by Verschuren (1989) and Boudot & Jacquemin (1995). Along with other anatomical structures, these authors measured the size of the lateral spines on abdominal segments 8 and 9, setae of these segments and the gonapophysis. The aim of this work was to determine whether certain morpho-biometric characters of the exuviae (head width, gonapophysis length and relative size of the lateral spines) are useful for grouping C. boltonii populations over a wide geographical area. If so, do they support the results for the same area of a genetic analysis and/or morphometric analysis of other body structures.

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