1st European Congress on Odonatology Programme and abstracts

Towards an understanding of Calopteryx splendens
Henri J. Dumont
Department of Biology, Ghent University, Ledeganckstraat, 35, B 9000 Ghent, Belgium
The late Cenozoic cooling brought an end to the sejunct range of Calopteryx from Northern Africa
across Asia to North America. In North Africa-Mediterranean Europe and West Asia, pleniglacials
reduced inhabitable areas to small patches, from which populations could radiate after each
deglaciation. Some populations (Calopteryx intermedia, C. waterstoni) did that more successfully than
others (C. syriaca, C. exul). The overarching, successful taxon is Calopteryx splendens. It remained
taxonomically rather simple in the west mediterranean (C. xanthostoma and exul), but split in a
pathwork of infrspecific taxa in the East Mediterranean and Ponto-Caspian. None of these emergent
taxa show reproductive isolation, and they defy the rules of nomenclature! Uninhibited hybridisation is
the rule where two or more taxa meet, only part of which can be picked up morphologically by the
male coloured wing patch extent (and sometimes by female wing colours). Molecular techniques
currently allow to define these taxa’s gene pools better, but still are in their infancy. Good markers
exist and have been used, but so far in an anonymous manner (AFLP). Progress will come as soon as
some of these markers can be identified and their base sequence used as a taxonomic criterium.
13