COLOMBO The first time that scientists described the beautiful metallic-green dragonfly that they would later call Flint’s cruiser was in 1970. Based on a single dead male specimen, they named the species Macromia flinti, endemic to Sri Lanka. And then, for the next half century, they never saw another one. No flash of iridescent […]
Posted on May 18th, 2021
by Amila Prasanna Sumanapala on 18 May 2021 Courtesy Mongabay
Nearly half of the 130 known species of dragonflies and damselflies in Sri Lanka are found nowhere else on Earth.
The highest endemic species density is found in the island’s central highlands, attributed to the variations in the geography and climatic conditions as different mountain ranges have different ecological characteristics providing unique evolutionary pressures for speciation.
But for long, knowledge of these odonates had been confined to scientific names and basic descriptions and locational information, until a new surge of interest drove the country’s odonates research to new heights.