Mecistogaster amalia ( Burmeister, 1839 )

Soldati Lacerda, Déborah S. & Monteiro Machado, Angelo B., 2019, The damselfly genus Mecistogaster (Odonata: Pseudostigmatidae) from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest with a description of three new species and a neotype designation for M. amalia (Burmeister, 1839), Zootaxa 4668 (2), pp. 207-228 : 211

Mecistogaster amalia ( Burmeister, 1839)

Burmeister (1839: 818); Selys (1860: 11, 1886: 15, 1890: 119); Kirby (1890: 150); Calvert (1907: 354); Kennedy (1919: 112); Kennedy (1920: 85); Calvert (1948: 57); Davies & Tobin (1984: 58); Machado (1985: 36); Bridges (1994: 7–8); Vick & Chelmick (2001: 5); Lencioni (2017: 173); von Ellenrieder & Paulson (2006); Fliedner (2006: 12); Muzón et al. (2010: 138); Dalzochio et al. (2011: 78); Ingley et al. (2012: 641); Kompier (2015: 87).

Etymology. Burmeister (1839: 818) did not explain why he chose the specific name amalia . In his study of the scientific names in Burmeister’s Handbuch der Entomologie, Fliedner (2006) states that Amalia is the name of a lady who lived in the sixth century and belonged to the Austrogoths royal family. According to him, Burmeister liked to choose names from classical antiquity.

Original description. 3. A. Amalia*: Nigro-aeneun, subtus albidum; mesonoto vita laterali alba; alis hyalinis totis, pterostigmatibus nigris posticis délatatis. Long. 5 1/3 ’’. Aus Brasilien ” [Bronze black, below white; mesonotum with a white lateral stripe; wings totally hyaline; pterostigma black, dilated posteriorly. 5 1/3’’ long. From Brazil].

The statement in this description that the mesonotum has a white lateral stripe is no doubt an error because the mesonotum in odonates is very small and there is no space for a lateral stripe. Although the description is short, it is supposed that ‘bronze black’ refers to the color of the mesepimeron, ‘below white’ to the venter, ‘pterostigma’ to the pseudostigma, and ‘dilated posteriorly’ to the costal margin at the level of the pseudostigma projected anteriorly. These characters are still used in Mecistogaster taxonomy and are enough to separate M. amalia from the other four species of Mecistogaster here reported from the Atlantic Forest.