Thursday, April 3, 2008

Amphipterygidae - Devadatta argyoides

Devadatta argyoides (Selys, 1859)
In Malaysia, there are two Devadatta species: Devadatta argyoides and D. podolestoides. However, D. argyoides is found in Peninsular Malaysia and D. podolestoides is endemic to Borneo. Photo below shows a wheel pair of D. argyoides. Devadatta is belonged to family Amphipterygidae. It is said that the family Amphipterygidae is a primitive family. Dr. A.G. Orr came to visit UKM Bangi on 19-27 November 2007. He indulged himself much in odonate sampling at the aquatic habitats around the UKM Bangi campus. I remember one late afternoon he was so delighted to show me some D. argyoides larvae that he sampled at the forest streamlet not too far from the building of the Faculty of Science and Technology. Dr. Orr narrated his exciting encounter and observation of D. argyoides larvae during his UKM visit in AGRION 12(1) (http://ecoevo.uvigo.es/WDA/).

A beautiful wheel pair of D. argyoides. The presence of D. argyoides indicates the good quality of aquatic habitats in the forest.