[Odonata-l] territoriality

[Carlo Utzeri]

Dannis wrote 

"Many odonates mate away from water, and those would be interesting to look at more closely, as in those cases, there is no "territory quality" entering into the picture, so one wonders if another sort of female choice might be exercised."

 

Several years ago I published a study on territoriality in Libellula depressa (Advances in Odo­natoogy. 4: 133-147) in which I concluded that males, as soon as arrived to the water, were not chosing any particular site as their territory, but they established territories around the oviposition site of a female with which they had mated. Successive observations (unpublished) convinced me that the same occurs in Crocothemis erythraea. So in this case, males "learn" the good oviposition site and enclose it in their territories, since many other females will probably come to the same site. I believe that this system might be valid for many other libellulids. Don't you think that the same may be the case with dragonflies which mate far from the water?



Greetings

carlo ùtzeri
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