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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Note A new distribution record of the Western Ghats endemic damselfly Melanoneura bilineata Fraser, 1922 (Insecta: Odonata) from Maharashtra, India Yogesh Koli & Akshay Dalvi 26 August 2021 | Vol. 13 | No. 9 | Pages: 19380–19382 DOI: 10.11609/jot.7536.13.9.19380-19382 For Focus, Scope, Aims, and Policies, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/aims_scope For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/policies_various 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. 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Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2021 | 13(9): 19380–19382 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) OPEN ACCESS htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.7536.13.9.19380-19382 #7536 | Received 26 June 2021 | Finally accepted 01 August 2021 NOTE A new distributon record of the Western Ghats endemic damselfy Melanoneura bilineata Fraser, 1922 (Insecta: Odonata) from Maharashtra, India Yogesh Koli 1 & Akshay Dalvi 2 1,2 Department of Zoology, Sant Rawool Maharaj College Kudal, Sindhudurg, Maharashtra 416520, India. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected] In India, the genus Melanoneura Fraser, 1922 is (1) of secton 37 of the biological diversity act 2002, represented by only one species, i.e., M. bilineata the Government of Maharashtra, declared it as a world Fraser, 1922. It is categorised as ‘NearThreatened’on heritage site on 28 January 2021. The specimens were theIUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Subramanian preserved in 70% alcohol and deposited at Zoological 2011). The very frst tme, Fraser (1924) described the Survey of India (ZSI), Pune (male: ZSI, WRC, Ent.4/2825; type series collected from Coorg (Kodagu) and Malabar Female: ZSI, WRC, Ent.4/2826). Photographs were taken hills at an alttude of 900–1,300 m. Subsequently, usinga Canon 760D with a 100mm macro lens. Species more observatons were made from Kozhikode, Kannur, identfcaton was carried outwith the help of a standard Peravoor, and Thiruvananthapuram (Subramanian 2011; feld guide (Fraser 1924, 1933). Morphological terms Subramanian et al. 2018). In this note, we report M. refer to Garrison et al. (2010).The map used in Image 3 bilineata for thefrst tme from Maharashtra, based on is created using a QGIS v3.10.2. Copula of M.bilineata one male and one female specimen. (Image 1a) was found perching on vegetaton along The work was started in September 2020 at the water fow in myristca swamp. This locality is Myristca swamp (15.8090N 74.1210E, 73m), Hevale spread up to 11,000m2 (2.70 acres), bordered by paddy village, Dodamarg taluka of Sindhudurg district (Image feldson one side and on the other side there’s aroad 3). Yogesh Koli (YK) and Akshay Dalvi (AD) frst observed across which there is a rubber plantaton. This region Melanoneura bilineata on 8.x.2020. To confrm this is locally termed as ‘Kanhalachi Rai’. The water fow in genus, it was needed to check its wing venaton and this swamp is from the northern to the southern side shape of caudal appendages (Image 1c,f). Therefore, one and the stream is partly diverted to paddy felds by local male and one female specimen (Image 1a)were collected people for irrigaton purposes. from this locality. While sampling (8 October 2020), this Melanoneura Fraser, 1922 is a monotypic genus region was not under legal protecton, which was later closely similar to Caconeura (Fraser 1922), Phylloneura in the exercise of the power conferred by sub-secton (Selys 1860), and Esme (Fraser 1922). The male Editor: Ashish D. Tiple, Vidyabharat College, Seloo, Wardha, India. Date of publicaton: 26 August 2021 (online & print) Citaton: Koli, Y. & A. Dalvi (2021). A new distributon record of Melanoneura bilineata Fraser, 1922 (Insecta: Odonata) from India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(9): 19380–19382. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.7536.13.9.19380-19382 Copyright: © Koli & Dalvi 2021. 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: Self-funded. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the Principal, Sant Rawool Maharaj College, Kudal for providing necessary facilites for this research. We are thankful to Dr. Dataprasad Sawant for his valuable help in creatng the QGIS Map. We are grateful to Mr. Pravin Sawant, Mr. Gurunath Kadam, Mr. Tejas Sawant, Miss. Mayuri Chavan for their kind help during the feld work. 19380 New distributon record of Melanoneura bilineata Koli & Dalvi J TT b c d e a f Image 1. Melanoneura bilineata male: a—copula | b—thorax, dorsal view | c—right FW & HW | d—face | e—thorax, lateral | f—caudal appendages, lateral view. © Yogesh Koli. individual shows the following characteristcs (Image and anteclypeus similar to the male in colour. Synthorax 1a–f): vertex andocciput black, shows a broad blue band black dorsally with yellowish-blue antehumeral stripes. across the base of the postclypeus. Synthorax black S3–S7 unmarked; S8 having azure blue vertcal stripe with blue antehumeral stripe on each side of the mid on tergume. This speciescan be easily distnguished by dorsal carina. Wings hyaline, Pt brownish-black and anal absence of anal bridge in its wing venaton (Image1c) bridge is absent. Abdomen marked with azure blue, S3– (Fraser 1924, 1933). The genus Caconeura and S6 have basal lunules over dorsum, S7 unmarked, S8– Phylloneura haveincomplete anal bridge whereas genus S10 blue with black stripe on lower half of lateral side. Esme shows a complete anal bridge. Apart from wing Caudal appendages black, cerci directed straight back venaton, the genus Melanoneura also difers bythe and then down, paraprocts broad at base and slightly absence of blue marking on S7 and with a slight variaton curved at the tp. Female (Image 1a): labium, labrum, in lateral blue marking on S2. Caudal appendages of all Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2021 | 13(9): 19380–19382 19381 J TT New distributon record of Melanoneura bilineata Koli & Dalvi a b Image 2. Habitat in the locality: a & b—Myristca swamp, Dodamarg. © Yogesh Koli. Image 3. The known distributon of Melanoneura bilineata. the above generaare quite similar in colouraton, almost References longer than S10 but distnguished by a slight variaton in their shape. Rather in Melanoeneura, the shape of the Fraser, F.C. (1924). A survey of the Odonate (Dragonfy) fauna of Western India with special remarks on the genera Macromia and cerci is more like a ‘wrist and hand held in the attude of Idionyx and descriptons of thirty new species. Zoological Survey of clasping a ball’ (Fraser 1933). India. Volumes (Records), 504–505pp. The frst record of M. bilineata from Maharashtra Fraser, F.C. (1933). The Fauna of Britsh India, including Ceylon and Burma. Odonata. Vol. I. Taylor and Francis, London, 398pp. indicates that multple observatons are needed to study Garrison, R.W., N. von Ellenrieder & J.A. Louton (2010). Damselfy its distributon paterns in the entre Western Ghats. genera of the New World: An Illustrated and Annotated Key to the Myristca swamp of Dodamarg (Shredharan & Indulkar Zygoptera. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltmore, 490pp. Sreedharan, G. & M. Indulkar (2018). New distributonal record of 2018) is poorly known in terms of biodiversity aspects. the northernmost Myristca swamp from the Western Ghats of The presence of such infrequent species in this region Maharashtra. Current Scince 115(8): 1434–1436. Subramanian, K.A. (2011). Melanoneura bilineata. The IUCN Red List signifes that the present locality stll remains with of Threatened Species 2011: e.T175151A7114038.Downloaded many unreported species. Therefore, more surveys are on 18 August 2021. htps://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-1.RLTS. required to document faunal diversity of this region, in T175151A7114038.en Subramanian, K.A., K.G. Emiliyamma, R. Babu, C. Radhakrishnan order to make various conservaton acton plans. & S.S. Talmale (2018). Atlas of Odonata (Insecta) of the Western Ghats, India. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 118pp. Threatened Taxa 19382 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2021 | 13(9): 19380–19382 The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by OPEN ACCESS publishing peer-reviewed