The new damselfly species is found in the Vu Quang and Pu Mat national parks (Photo courtesy of researchers)Leaders at Ha Tinh’s Vu Quang National Park saidresearchers from Duy Tan University based in the central city of Da Nang andstaff from Vu Quang and the Pu Mat National Park in Nghe An discovered the newdamselfly Coeliccia natgeo, named after the US’s National Geographic Society,which sponsored the survey.
The discovery was published in the journal Zootaxin late 2020.
In a short survey of certain areas in Vu QuangNational Park in Huong Son district conducted in July 2018, Dr Phan Quoc Toanfrom Duy Tan University collected specimens that he believed were of a newspecies.
However, the low number of specimens and uncleardata hampered any announcement.
In May 2019, Toan and other researchersunexpectedly found some male individuals of the species in Pu Mat. A yearlater, they recorded its presence in several areas of Vu Quang.
After gaining sufficient data and specimens,they announced the discovery of the species – whose full name is Coeliccianatgeo Phan, Ngo, Toan & Tuan, 2020 - with the holotype collected from the KheNhop area in Vu Quang National Park.
Coeliccia natgeo is the 8th member of Coelicciahayashii, a damselfly group endemic to Vietnam.
It differs from other members by its maleslacking antehumeral stripes, spots, and pruinosity on the synthorax and its femaleshaving the central part of the posterior pronotal lobe reduced to a smallprojection.
Via this study, the habitat of the Coelicciahayashii group was confirmed to extend to the northern part of the centralregion. Species in this group were previously recorded only in the CentralHighlands and Bach Ma National Park in Thua Thien-Hue province.
Earlier, a group of entomologists led by Toanalso discovered two new damselfly species, Drepanosticta emtrai Dow, Kompier& Phan, 2018 in Vu Quang in 2018, and Prosaineura lancastrei Phan &Ngo, 2020 in Pu Mat last year./.
VNA
