KANNUR: Three new varieties of dragonflies were spotted at the Aralam wild life sanctuary in the two-day dragonfly survey organised jointly by the Forests and Wildlife department and the Malabar Natural History Society. The survey concluded on Sunday. Spotted Torrent Hawk (pulli neerkavalan), Malabar Bambootail (Malabar mulavalan) and the Black-tipped Ground Skimmer Diplacodes nebulosa (chutti nilathan) are the three new varieties found by a team of experts led by Dr Jafer Palot, Siji Kiran and V.C. Balakrishnan. The first two are classified as narrow endemics and are reported only from southernmost part of the Western Ghats.
Spotted Torrent hawk (Pulli Neerkavalan)
“After the survey, the total number of Odonate fauna (or the number of carnivorous insects) of the sanctuary has become 98. The present survey documented 67 species, of which 32 are damselflies and 34 are dragonflies. Of these, 10 species are endemic to the Western Ghats,” said Jafer Palot, assistant Zoologist at the Zoological survey of India, Kozhikode. This was the third annual dragonfly survey in Aralam wildlife sanctuary. The 10 species endemic to the Western Ghats are: Protosticta gravelyi, Caconeura risi, Esme sp., Eupahaea dispar, Euphaea fraseri, Heliogomphus promelas, Onycogomphus nilgiriensis, Gomphidia kodaguensis, Epophthalmia frontalis and Melanoneura bilineata.
