Gynacantha rosenbergi Kaup in Brauer, 1867

Grand, Daniel, Marinov, Milen, Jourdan, Herve, Cook, Carl, Rouys, Sophie, Mille, Christian & Theuerkauf, Jörn, 2019, Distribution, habitats, phenology and conservation of New Caledonian Odonata, Zootaxa 4640 (1), pp. 1-112 : 52

Gynacantha rosenbergi Kaup in Brauer, 1867

( Fig. 50 )

Gynacantha rosenbergi Kaup in Brauer, 1867: 295 ; Gynacantha bonguensis Foerster, 1898 ; Acanthagyna rosenbergi Kimmins, 1953 ; Acanthagyna dobsoni Fraser, 1951 .

Distribution ( Fig. 51 ). This species is known from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the North-East of Australia and Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon islands ( Tsuda 2000). We observed it in La Foa and in Nouméa, where it was formerly recorded by Kimmins (1953). This species is rarely encountered despite Davies (2002) describing it as “widely spread, even abundant in New Caledonia ”. One specimen collected in October 2004 in La Foa (Nily) is held in the CXMNC collection.

Habitat. Theischinger & Hawking (2006) wrote: “probably inhabits still waters”.

Biology and behaviour. Gynacantha rosenbergi has crepuscular habits, especially when foraging. It visits all habitats, including towns where individuals are attracted to artificial light. According to Theischinger & Hawking (2006), its larva is unknown.

Status. Because there is insufficient information on the status of G. rosenbergi in New Caledonia, we rank it as DD. We assigned all records to G. rosenbergi by supposition because so far this is the only representative of the genus known to be present in the country. However, Pacific Gynacantha are poorely studied and there is a possibility that some of the previous records of G. rosenbergi need to be transferred to another species.

Figures

FIGURE 50. Gynacantha spp.: a) G. rosenbergi, male, Australia (G. Winterflood), b) Gynacantha sp., female (J. Theuerkauf)

FIGURE 51. Records of Gynacantha spp.