Coenagrion persicum

Schneider, Thomas, Ikemeyer, Dietmar, Ferreira, Sónia & Müller, Ole, 2016, Rediscovery and redescription of Coenagrion persicum (Lohmann 1993) with description of the female, and some notes on habitat selection (Odonata: Coenagrionidae), Zootaxa 4103 (6), pp. 561-573 : 562-570

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4103.6.6

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:C168A6E7-C938-4B78-BC7C-D84A18C569AA

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6073676

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03A387B6-FFA0-3D66-5EC9-A449FDDF7B18

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Coenagrion persicum
status

 

Rediscovery of C. persicum View in CoL

During a trip to southern and southwestern Iran in early summer 2015, two of us (TS and DI) found at 4 localities in mountain regions of Lorestãn and Esfahãn Provinces a small Coenagrion that was clearly different from the only other co-occurring Coenagrion , C. vanbrinkae ( Lohmann, 1993) by being smaller and darker, especially on S5–7. These individuals were identified in the hand as C. persicum , because the males fit well with the description of Lohmann (1993). As females were unknown, some female specimens suspected to be of this species were also collected, some of them in tandem with males of C. persicum .

Description of the colour pattern of C. persicum males and comparison with Lohmann's description ( Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 A–E, H, I, 2A, C, E). Males of C. persicum have large postocular spots that are usually weakly toothed or serrated on the rear margin. The antehumeral stripes in C. persicum males are mostly absent, with some individuals showing residual small dots ( Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 D, E). This is in contrast to most of the C. pulchellum males ( Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 G). In accordance with Lohmann`s description, the overall colour and pattern of C. persicum males resemble that of C. pulchellum . However, in contrast to the specimen described by Lohmann (1993), the U-marking of S 2 in all of our specimens ( Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 B) is intermediate between C. puella (see e.g. Dijkstra 2006) and C. pulchellum ( Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 F). Some C. persicum males have a faint to weak stalk-like connection between the base of the U-mark and the caudal marking of the caudal margin of segment 2 and the others have no connection ( Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 B). The male colour pattern of S3–10 are in accordance with Lohmann`s description ( Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 A). The pattern on the tergites of S3–5 has trident shapes and the lateral points reach nearly the upper margins of the segments. The middle point of S3 reaches over one half of the tergite, the middle point of S4 reaches to two-thirds of the tergite, and the middle point of S5 reaches nearly the upper margin of the segment. On S3 this black marking leaves ca. 70% blue, on S4 the blue is reduced to ca. 50%, and on S5 is up to 80% black. S6–7 are nearly completely black with small to very small blue dots. S8 is blue, S9 blue with black markings, and S10 is black.

Cerci in dorsal view resemble C. pulchellum but are coarser and chunky ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 A–F). At mid-length on the inner margin, there is a clearly visible tooth turned inward ( Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 C, 2A). Some C. pulchellum males have also a similar tooth on their cerci; however, it is located more distally, while other C. pulchellum males have no tooth ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 B).

The outer branch of the paraprocts, in lateral view, are obliquely directed backwards in C. persicum , exceeding the cerci but not reaching mid-height of S10. These structures are first directed upright (ca. vertically), then backwards in C. pulchellum , in which they do not exceed the cerci but do exceed mid-height of S 10 in lateral view ( Figs. 2 View FIGURE 2 C, D). This observation differs from the description by Lohmann, in which the outer branches of the lower appendages are first directed upright in both species.

Description of females ( Figs. 3 View FIGURE 3 A–D, F). Females of C. persicum have large postocular spots that are usually weakly toothed or serrated on the rear margin. The pterostigma is very dark, nearly black. In contrast to males, females have complete antehumeral stripes, which are blue. Some females are very dark with S3–7 black, S1–2 and S8 blue or pale ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 C left), reminiscent of C. armatum females (see e.g. Dijkstra 2006). Other females have more Genbank

Species Code Country Latitude Longitude Source

PRMT PGI-1219 blue and and are similar to males; however, the median point in females is much longer than the lateral points, reaching nearly the upper margin of the segment ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 A, Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 C middle and right). In these blue females some variation was seen in the pattern of black and blue abdominal markings ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 A, 3C middle and right). However, unlike C. pulchellum , all females observed in C. persicum have a pattern on S2 like a spearhead ( Figs. 3 View FIGURE 3 A, B) reminiscent of the S2 mark in C. hastulatum males ( Dijkstra 2006).

The hind margin of the pronotum in C. persicum females is deeply trilobed, and the three very distinct lobes resemble at first sight the corresponding structure in C. pulchellum ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 D). However, in contrast with the latter ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 E), the middle lobe in C. persicum is clearly longer than the two lateral ones and more rounded than in C. pulchellum , in which it is rather pointed, and the lateral lobes are curved inward only in C. persicum . The dorsal surface of the outer lobes of the pronotum has a more pronounced relief in C. persicum ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 D) compared with C. pulchellum ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 E).

Measurements. Males (n =21) and females (n=5) of C. persicum are small, about 30 mm in total length ( Table 2 View TABLE 2 ).

FIGURE 3 View FIGURE 3 . (continued) F–G Molecular analysis. The final dataset consisted of two alignments of 12 sequences (PRMT—706 bp long; PGI-1219—605 bp long) from 6 Coenagrion species ( Table 1 View TABLE 1 ). The most appropriate models for the PRMT and PGI sequences were HKY+I and HKY respectively. Tree topologies from both ML and BI approaches were identical in both markers, and thus we present results from the BI majority-rule consensus tree only ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 ). All of the species were recovered as distinct and well-supported branches ( BI pp>0.90), although relations between species varied with the marker used.

Species pairs exhibited distinct levels of genetic divergence at both PRMT and PGI datasets given the differences in relatedness between species (1.2% ≤ PRMT uncorrected p-distance ≥ 6.2%; 0.7% ≤ PGI uncorrected p-distance ≥ 9.9 %) ( Tables 3 View TABLE 3 and 4 View TABLE 4 ). Regarding the PRMT fragment, C. persicum exhibited approximately 1.2% sequence divergence with respect to C. pulchellum , which was the same divergence observed between the latter and either C. puella or C. ornatum . The minimum divergence observed in the PGI fragment was between C. ornatum and C. pulchellum (0.7%), while C. persicum exhibited approximately 1.9% sequence divergence with respect to either C. pulchellum or C. ornatum .

Characterization of the habitat and some notes on the behaviour. Coenagrion persicum seems to prefer running waters of small springs with rich herbaceous vegetation in and around the water ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 , above). We found C. persicum at four sites in mountain regions in Iran ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 , map), with two flourishing populations showing about one hundred individuals. One of the latter was near the type locality in Lorestãn Province ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 (1): 33.459799°N, 49.349852°E; 1817 m; 11.VI.2015), and the other was in Esfahãn Province near Dari Sari ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 (2): 33.249639°N, 49.947417°E; 2329 m; 12.VI.2015). These two localities were characterized as headwater areas with herb-rich brooks and ditches surrounded by wet meadows. Two further small populations with not more than 10 individuals during our visit were located in Esfahãn Province on the Annaarbar River near Noqan ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 (3): 33.180695°N, 50.064721°E; 2235 m; 12.VI.2015) and Pelasjan River near Singerd ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 (4): 32.823649°N, 50.429044°E; 2155 m; 12.VI.2015). Coenagrion persicum individuals were not observed flying distances of more than 2 meters, and were found resting in the vegetation in and around the water most of the time. One pair was observed laying eggs in floating vegetation ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 G). No territorial behaviour was observed. Coenagrion persicum co-occurs with other rheophilic species such as Coenagrion vanbrinkae , Calopteryx intermedia Selys, 1887 , Caliaeschna microstigma (Schneider, 1845) and Cordulegaster insignis nobilis Morton, 1916 . At all localities it was much rarer than C. vanbrinkae .

TABLE 2. Measurements of Coenagrion persicum in mm median (range), given are total length (TL), abdomen length (AL), and hind wing length (HWL).

  TL AL HWL
males (n = 21) 30 mm (27–31 mm) 23 mm (22–26 mm) 17 mm (15–19 mm)
females (n = 5) 29 mm (29–30 mm) 23 mm (23–24 mm) 18 mm (17–19 mm)

TABLE 1. Coenagrion specimens analysed in this study. For each we list the sample code, country, site coordinates (WGS 84 datum, decimal degrees), GenBank accession number for arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) and phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI) sequence data and source of the sequence.

Coenagrion persicum Df1945_IRN Iran 33,250 49,947 KU886743 View Materials KU886749 View Materials This study
Coenagrion pulchellum Df1141_ARM Armenia 40,462 45,288 KU886744 View Materials KP272595 View Materials This study
Coenagrion pulchellum Df1142_ARM Armenia 40,433 45,107 - KM276635 View Materials Ferreira et al. 2014
Coenagrion pulchellum Df1800_FIN Finland 62,236 25,804 KM276641 View Materials - Ferreira et al. 2014
Coenagrion pulchellum Df1801_FIN Finland 62,236 25,804 KU886745 View Materials KP272719 View Materials This study
Coenagrion puella Df1778_MKD Macedonia 41,181 20,667 KU695856 View Materials KP272708 View Materials Ferreira et al. 2016/ This study
Coenagrion puella Df1792_DEU Germany 48,388 11,844 KU695858 View Materials KM276637 View Materials Ferreira et al. 2016/Ferreira et al. 2014
Coenagrion puella Df1794_RUSc Russia (Caucasus) 44,057 40,734 KU695859 View Materials - Ferreira et al. 2016
Coenagrion puella Df1795_RUSc Russia (Caucasus) 44,057 40,734 - KP272716 View Materials This study
Coenagrion ornatum Df1568_SVN Slovenia 45,961 15,129 KU886746 View Materials KP272666 View Materials This study
Coenagrion ornatum Df1788_BIH Bosnia and Herzegovina 43,254 17,612 KU886748 View Materials KM276638 View Materials This study/Ferreira et al. 2014
Coenagrion ornatum Df1789_BIH Bosnia and Herzegovina 43,254 17,612 KU886747 View Materials KP272711 View Materials This study
Coenagrion mercuriale Df830_MAR Morocco 31,060 -7,683 - KM248498 View Materials Ferreira et al. 2014
Coenagrion mercuriale Df840_MAR Morocco 33,149 -5,059 KM248522 View Materials - Ferreira et al. 2014
Coenagrion caerulescens Df1715_TUN Tunisia 36,742 8,716 - KM276636 View Materials Ferreira et al. 2014
Coenagrion caerulescens Df1713_TUN Tunisia 36,742 8,716 KM276642 View Materials - Ferreira et al. 2014

TABLE 3. Mean (below diagonal) and standard deviation (above diagonal) sequence divergence (uncorrected pdistances) at a 706 bp fragment of arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) among pairs of species of Coenagrion.

PRMT C. persicum C. persicum 0,004 0,005 0,005 0,007 0,008
C. persicum   0,004 0,005 0,005 0,007 0,008
C. pulchellum 0,012   0,004 0,004 0,007 0,008
C. puella 0,017 0,012   0,004 0,007 0,008
C. ornatum 0,017 0,012 0,014   0,007 0,008
C. mercuriale 0,040 0,035 0,039 0,035   0,009
C. caerulescens 0,055 0,049 0,053 0,050 0,062  

TABLE 4. Mean (below diagonal) and standard deviation (above diagonal) sequence divergence (uncorrected pdistances) at a 706 bp fragment of phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI) among pairs of species of Coenagrion.

PGI-1219 C. persicum C. persicum 0,006 0,008 0,006 0,010 0,011
C. persicum   0,006 0,008 0,006 0,010 0,011
C. pulchellum 0,019   0,008 0,003 0,010 0,011
C. puella 0,039 0,038   0,008 0,010 0,011
C. ornatum 0,019 0,007 0,038   0,010 0,011
C. mercuriale 0,068 0,062 0,068 0,065   0,012
C. caerulescens 0,086 0,082 0,086 0,080 0,099  

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Odonata

Family

Coenagrionidae

Genus

Coenagrion

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