Context

A new damselfly species from the Western Ghats has been added to odonates’ checklist of Kerala.

About

About the new species:

• Name: Anamalai Reed-tail (scientific name: Protosticta anamalaica Sadasivan, Nair and Samuel, 2022).
• Anamalai Reed-tail first spotted at Peechi Wildlife Sanctuary.
• The tiny insect was first spotted at Ponmudi hills in the Peechi Wildlife Sanctuary that forms part of the Nelliampathies–Anamalais sub-unit of the Munnar landscape.
• The genus Protosticta Sels, 1885, consists of slender-built damselflies commonly known as Reed-tails or Shadow-damsels.
• They inhabit hill streams in tropical, subtropical and temperate jungles of the Indian subcontinent and south-eastern Asia.
• In India, they are distributed in the Western Ghats and north-eastern region towards Myanmar.
• The genus was described from Sulawesi in Indonesia.
• There are 15 species of Protosticta in India, among which 12 inhabit the Western Ghats.
• Kerala has 182 odonates’ species with 69 endemics.