Covid-19 Special Issue Agrion 24(2) - May 2020 AGRION NEWSLETTER OF THE WORLDWIDE DRAGONFLY ASSOCIATION PATRON: Professor Edward O. Wilson FRS, FRSE Covid-19 Special Issue - Volume 24, Number 2 May 2020 Secretary and Treasurer: W. Peter Brown, Hill House, Flag Hill, Great Bentley, Colchester CO7 8RE. Email: wda.secretary@gmail. com. Editors: Keith D.P. Wilson. 18 Chatsworth Road, Brighton, BN1 5DB, UK. Email: [email protected]. Graham T. Reels. 31 St Anne’s Close, Badger Farm, Winchester, SO22 4LQ, Hants, UK. Email: [email protected]. ISSN 1476-2552 Covid-19 Special Issue Agrion 24(2) - May 2020 AGRION NEWSLETTER OF THE WORLDWIDE DRAGONFLY ASSOCIATION AGRION is the Worldwide Dragonfly Association’s (WDA’s) newsletter, normally published twice a year, in January and July. Occasionally a Special Issue is produced, as is the case for this issue, that has been published in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The WDA aims to advance public education and awareness by the promotion of the study and conservation of dragonflies (Odonata) and their natural habitats in all parts of the world. AGRION covers all aspects of WDA’s activities; it communicates facts and knowledge related to the study and conservation of dragonflies and is a forum for news and information exchange for members. AGRION is freely available for downloading from the WDA website at [https://worlddragonfly.org/about/agrion/]. WDA is a Registered Charity (Not-for-Profit Organization), Charity No. 1066039/0. A ‘pdf’ of the WDA’s Constitution and byelaws can be found at its website link at [https://worlddragonfly.org/about/]. ________________________________________________________________________________ Editor’s notes Keith Wilson [[email protected]] AGRION Special Issue Coronovirus pandemic 2019 (Covid-19 or SARS-CoV-2) In response to the movement restrictions imposed on the vast majority of us throughout the World in early 2020, as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vincent Kalkman suggested in late March 2020 that it might be a good idea to produce a special ‘Coronovirus’ edition of Agrion. Due to global restrictions on movement many of us have had to cancel our plans involving any travel over March and April 2020 and from as early as late January in Wuhan and many other parts of China. Apart from essential workers most of us have been more or less confined to home during this period. Jessica Ware, our WDA President was happy to support a special issue of Agrion so we reached out to regular contributors to see if a such an issue could be prepared by the end of April. Given the very positive response we received we decided to go ahead and publish this Covid-19 Special Issue of Agrion. The issue includes artcles from every continent, except Antartica, reflecting the global reach of the Covid-19 pandemic. WDA Membership - Important Notice Control of the membership signing up and renewal process is now being handled by WDA directly from the WDA website. For membership renewal also see the letter sent to all members 16th December 2019. There are several kinds of WDA membership available, either single or family, with or without the WDA’s journal (The International Journal of Odonatology) in electronic form or hard copy. There are also reduced membership categories for students (grade school, undergraduate, graduate, etc.) and anyone (student or not) residing in a developing nation. You can sign up for a membership using the WDA’s website [https://worlddragonfly.org/ membership-account/membership-levels/] or by contacting the WDA secretary directly [wda.secretary@gmail. com]. Sponsored memberships are also available for those who cannot afford the cost due to currency restrictions or other reasons. Conference & Meeting News The International Congress of Odonatology ICO2021 The next ICO will be held in Paphos, Cyprus at the Neapolis University from 21st to 25th June 2021 and will be organised by The Cyprus Dragonfly Society and Terra Cypria. For further information consult the WDA website [Link] or contact David Sparrow, Chair of the Organising Committee [[email protected]]. ________________________________________________________________________________ Cover: The rare Libellago corbeti van der Poorten, 2009, which is endemic to Sri Lanka. Photo credit: Risto Toivonen. 58 Covid-19 Special Issue Agrion 24(2) - May 2020 Seventh DragonflySouthAsia Meeting The 7th DragonflySouthAsia Meeting is now going to be a virtual meeting and has been renamed DragonflySouthAsia Virtual Meeting 2020. DragonflySouthAsia, of DiversityIndia, in association with South Asian Council of Odonatology and Society for Odonate Studies is organising a series of lectures on Odonatology that can be viewed on the DragonflySouthAsia Facebook Group. For latest news see Link. European Congress on Odonatology (ECOO) 2020 The 6th European Congress on damselflies and dragonflies, ECOO 2020, was scheduled to be held in Kamnik, Slovenia from 29 June to 2 July, 2020 with a post congress field trip. The conference organisers announced on April 21st that they: ‘have carefully assessed the global situation and after due consideration regarding the health and safety of the participants have jointly agreed to postpone the 6th European Congress on Odonatology’. The Slovene Dragonfly Society now proposes to organize the 6th ECOO at the end of June 2022 for a similar period at the same location. Visit the ECOO 2020 website for more information and consult the ECOO2016 homepage web site for latest annoucements at [https://ecoo2016.wordpress.com/]. Dragonfly Society of the Americas: 2020 Annual Gathering Scheduled to be held at Lawton, Oklahoma from June 19-21, 2020. Pre-meeting field trips June 16-18 and post- meeting field trips June 22-24 (field trip sites will be in and around the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, not far from Lawton, OK). As of 28 April 2020 no announcements in respect of Covid-19 had been posted on the DSA web site. For latest news and information see [https://www.dragonflysocietyamericas.org/2020-meeting]. Sociedad(e) de Odonatología Latinoamericana (SOL) 3rd annual meeting, 7-9 October 2020 The Sociedad(e) de Odonatología Latinoamericana is scheduled to hold its 3rd annual meeting in Cusco, Peru from 7-9 October 2020. There will be a post conference trip at the Manu Learning Centre, Peru from 10-13 October 2020. The conference venue is the Universidad San Antonio Abad de Cusco. Details of fees and submission deadlines are soon to be released via the SOL Facebook [facebook.com/OdonataSol] and the SOL website [http://www.odonatasol.org/]. WDA’s International Journal of Odonatology The first issue of IJO in 2020 has been distruibuted and is a special issue focusing on Odonate Flight featuring 14 articles. The issue is now available online at [https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tijo20/current]. As a WDA member you can access all issues (current and old) of IJO through our WDA members’ portal. Next issue of AGRION For the next issue of AGRION, to be published at the beginning of July 2020, please send your contributions to Keith Wilson [[email protected]] or Graham Reels [[email protected]]. All articles, information and news items related to dragonflies or of interest to WDA members are most welcome and will be considered for publication. Please send all text and figure captions in a Word file by email. Please do not include artwork with the text but provide a separate file or files, ideally in a compressed format (e.g. ‘tiff’, ‘jpeg’ or ‘gif’). Do not make up plates of multiple photos but send original photo images as separate files. If you have an odonate photo illustrating any rarely observed aspect of dragonfly biology, or an unusual species, or simply a stunning dragonfly shot, please submit it for consideration for publication on the front cover of AGRION. 59 Covid-19 Special Issue Agrion 24(2) - May 2020 AGRION CONTENTS Editor’s notes 58 Maurits Lieftinck was my guru 61 Finding dragonflies in Singapore’s nature parks 66 Borneo diaries 69 Lockdown Odonatology – the healing power of nature 74 Sampling dragonflies in one of the few Covid-19 free places: Introducing the Pacific islands of Wallis & Futuna 80 A memorable encounter with Platycnemis phasmovolans, the ‘Flying Phantom Featherleg’ in Laos 84 Swift action by Edmond de Selys Longchamps in describing two exciting new ‘living fossil’ odonate species Hemiphlebia mirabilis and Epiophlebia superstes 89 Eight new additional records of Odonata from Bhutan 97 Phylogenetic implications of the pterothoracic sternites of Odonata nymphs 104 Adventures in Bakossiland – A short history of the Cameroon Dragonfly Project 108 Dragonflies in “the land of the Gods”Impressions of a dragonfly survey between Mussoorie and Yamuna, Uttarakhand, India 119 Collecting dragonflies in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada 124 “Students odonatin’ in a foreign land”: A recap of 2019 Vanuatu fieldwork 129 Strong changes in Dutch dragonfly fauna 134 Fishing dragons in Colombia! A collecting daydreaming during COVID-19 times 139 Name-bearing types and type catalogues of Odonata 144 Conflicting views on the status of Orthetrum cancellatum kraepelini 149 A quick tour of some libelluloid naughty bits 155 Marine dragonfly under threat at Lantau, Hong Kong (Odonata: Orthetrum poecilops) 162 New Books 169 Complete Field Guide to Dragonflies of Australia 169 Book review: Dragonflies at a biogeographical crossroads: The Odonata of Oklahoma and complexities beyond its borders 173 60 Covid-19 Special Issue Agrion 24(2) - May 2020 Maurits Lieftinck was my guru Henri J. Dumont [[email protected]] Gent, Belgium How does one become an odonatologist? I suppose there exist many ways, with chance playing a major role. In my case it helped to have a guru at the right time, beside being born and growing up in a river valley (the Dender) with plenty of water in a village with an important railway station (Denderleeuw). Until the 1950s, steam engine trains were being assembled and maintained here on a daily basis.