PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Note A record of gynandromorphism in the libellulid dragonfly Crocothemis servilia (Insecta: Odonata) from India R.V. Renjith & A. Vivek Chandran 26 June 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 9 | Pages: 16183–16186 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5322.12.9.16183-16186 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2020 | 12(9): 16183–16186 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5322.12.9.16183-16186 #5322 | Received 10 August 2019 | Final received 05 May 2020 | Finally accepted 12 May 2020 N o t A record of gynandromorphism in the libellulid dragonfy e Crocothemis servilia (Insecta: Odonata) from India R.V. Renjith 1 & A. Vivek Chandran 2 1 Sreekailasam House, Palappuram P.O., Otapalam, Palakkad, Kerala 679103, India. 2 Department of Geology and Environmental Science, Christ College, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur, Kerala 680125, India. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected] (corresponding author) Gynandromorphs are genetcally and phenotypically behavioural analyses. In Drosophila melanogaster, chimeric specimens and difer from intersexes for instance, gynandromorphs were used to provide which are genetcally uniform (Narita et al. 2010). evidence that male courtship behaviour originates in the Gynandromorphism can be bilateral, appearing to divide brain (Hota & Benzer 1972). down the middle into male and female sides, or they Gynandromorphism is rare in odonates (Corbet 1962) may be a mosaic, with patches characteristc of one sex and so far has been reported from 30 individuals belonging appearing in a body part characteristc of the other sex. to seven families: Calopterygidae, Coenagrionidae, Gynandromorphism is a rare phenomenon in nature and Aeshnidae, Gomphi dae, Cordulegastridae, Corduliidae, is usually detected in species that show distnct sexual and Libellulidae (Tennessen 2008; Torralba-Burrial dimorphism. It is known to occur in diferent arthropod & Ocharan 2009; Pix 2011; Futahashi 2017). There taxa such as Crustacea (Farmer 2004), Arachnida, e.g., are other forms of colour variaton seen in odonates. scorpions (Cokendolpher & Sissom 1988), spiders Andromorphic females are common in many odonate (Palmgren 1979), tcks (Labruna et al. 2002), and families. They have normal female reproductve Insecta, e.g., stonefies (Klotzek 1971), hymenopterans organs and are fertle (Robertson 1985; Andrew 2013). (Gjershaug et al. 2016), beetles (Le Gall 2006), buterfies Immature male imagoes of many Anisoptera resemble (Nielsen 2010), dipterans such as mosquitoes (Kronefeld females in colouraton, but can be distnguished by the et al. 2013) and fruit fies (Morgan & Bridges 1919). In male reproductve structures. Gynandromorphism, vertebrates it has been detected in reptles (Krohmer on the contrary, is believed to be a genetc aberraton 1989), birds (Peer & Motz 2014), and mammals caused by abnormal mitosis in the embryo leading to (Hollander et al. 1956). Gynandromorphs occasionally unequal distributon of sex chromosomes (May 1988). aford a powerful tool in genetc, developmental, and As a result, the developed individual has both male and Editor: Raymond J. Andrew, Hislop College, Nagpur, India. Date of publicaton: 26 June 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Renjith, R.V. & A.V. Chandran (2020). A record of gynandromorphism in the libellulid dragonfy Crocothemis servilia (Insecta: Odonata) from India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(9): 16183–16186. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5322.12.9.16183-16186 Copyright: © Renjith & Chandran 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: We thank Jeevan Jose and Noppadon Makbun for helping us confrm the conditon as gynandromorphism. We are grateful to the Society for Odonate Studies, Kerala for the constant support and encouragement. We are thankful to the organisers and partcipants of Kole Odonata Survey 2019. 16183 J TT Gynandromorphism in Crocothemis servilia Renjith & Chandran Image 1. Survey locaton from where Crocothemis servilia gynandromorph was recorded. female tssues and mixed morphological characteristcs. as it started raining and the individual moved into The Kole wetlands are low-lying areas that remain the deep marshes. Subsequent eforts to collect the submerged under foodwater for about six months specimen failed because of heavy rains that contnued of a year. Wetland agriculture, mainly paddy (rice) for the next few days, submerging the locaton. The cultvaton is the most important actvity undertaken species was initally identfed using the feld guide by there. They cover an area of 13,632ha and are spread Kiran & Raju (2013) and confrmed by referring to Fraser across Thrissur and Malappuram districts of Kerala (1936). (Johnkuty & Venugopal 1993). Kole has been a Ramsar The photographed individual showed bilateral site since 2002, an important bird area since 2004 (Islam gynandromorphism of only the thorax, half of which & Rahmani 2008), and a high value biodiversity area showed blood red colouraton as in males and the other since 2009 (MoEF 2009). In a survey conducted at Kole half pale yellow characteristc of females. The base of wetlands on 14 July 2019 (Image 1), jointly by Kerala the wing of the red half was marked with rich amber, Agricultural University, Kole Birders, Society for Odonate in contrast with the other wing base which was paler. Studies, and Kerala Forest Department, 33 species of The head, legs and abdomen showed typical female odonates were recorded. morphology. Status of the anal appendages could not Crocothemis servilia, is a common dragonfy be asserted from the photograph (Image 4). Since the associated with marshes, ponds, rivers and tanks. It is female characters dominated, this cannot be considered widely distributed in the Oriental and Australian region a “balanced” gynandromorphy. The individual exhibited (Subramanian 2009). The male has prominent blood red a genetc mosaic conditon only in the thoracic region. colouraton in almost all body parts including the head, May (1988) reported gynandromorphism in two thorax, abdomen and legs. The wings are transparent species of family Corduliidae, namely Somatochlora with the base marked with rich amber (Image 2). The flosa and Somatochlora provocans from the United female is pale yellow with dark brown thorax and legs States of America. The specimens he examined had (Image 3). mixtures of male and female external characters At Puzhakkal region of the Kole wetlands (10.5400N ranging from almost entrely female to about equally & 76.1720E), an individual of Crocothemis servilia that divided. They were symmetrical in development with looked part male and part female was photographed normally dimorphic structures mostly having characters during the survey. The specimen could not be collected intermediate between the typical male and female 16184 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2020 | 12(9): 16183–16186 J TT Gynandromorphism in Crocothemis servilia Renjith & Chandran © A. Vivek Chandran © A. Vivek Chandran Image 2. Crocothemis servilia adult male. Image 3. Crocothemis servilia adult female. conditons, partcularly notceable in the development of from Bangladesh (Shome et al. 2019), in which the the genital lobes, cerci, and metathoracic legs. Torralba- specimen’s head and thorax, including wings were Burrial & Ocharan (2009) reported gynandromorphism bilaterally gynandromorphic. The abdomen was in the libellulid Sympetrum striolatum from Spain. One androchromic but had female appendages at the of the two specimens they examined was a bilateral tp. In India, gynandromorphism was reported in gynandromorph which looked like a female in general Neurothemis tullia (Family: Libellulidae) and Heliocypha appearance but had male structures in the right side bisignata (Family: Chlorocyphidae) (Emiliyamma 2009), of the abdomen. Their second specimen