Aeshna is the scientific name of a genus of dragonflies from the family Aeshnidae. They are also known as hawker dragonflies, or, in North America, as mosaic darners. [edit] Description These are relatively large dragonflies. Their thorax and abdomen have a brown color, with blue or yellow stripes or spots on the thorax, and yellow, blue or green spots on the abdomen. Natalia von Ellenrieder's 2003 paper demonstrated that the Holarctic and Neotropical species placed in this genus did not share a common ancestor, and proposed the latter be placed in the genus Rhionaeschna. The name Aeshna was coined by the Danish entomologist Fabricius in the 18th century. The name may have resulted from a printer's error in spelling the Greek Aechma, "a spear".[1] The spelling 'Aeschna' has been intermittently used over a period of time, but is now abandoned for the original name 'Aeshna'. However, derived genus names (such as Rhionaeschna) retain the 'sch' spelling, as this is how they were first cited. [edit] Species - Aeshna affinis Van der Linden, 1820 – Southern Migrant Hawker
- Aeshna athalia Needham, 1930
- Aeshna baicalensis Belyshev, 1964
- Aeshna caerulea (Ström, 1783) – Azure Hawker
- Aeshna canadensis Walker, 1908 – Canada Darner
- Aeshna clepsydra Say, 1839 – Mottled Darner
- Aeshna constricta Say, 1839 – Lance-tailed Darner, Lance-tipped Darner
- Aeshna crenata Hagen, 1856
- Aeshna cyanea (Müller, 1764) – Blue Darner, Southern Aeshna, Southern Hawker
- Aeshna ellioti Kirby, 1896 – Highland Hawker
- Aeshna eremita Scudder, 1866 – Lake Darner
- Aeshna flavifrons Lichtenstein, 1976
- Aeshna frontalis Navás, 1936
- Aeshna grandis (Linnaeus, 1758) – Brown Hawker
- Aeshna interrupta Walker, 1908 – Variable Darner
- Aeshna isosceles Müller, 1767 – Norfolk Hawker
- Aeshna juncea (Linnaeus, 1758) – Common Hawker or Sedge Darner
- Aeshna lucia Needham, 1930
- Aeshna meruensis Sjöstedt, 1909
- Aeshna minuscula McLachlan, 1896
- Aeshna mixta Latreille, 1805 – Migrant Hawker
- Aeshna moori Pinhey, 1981
- Aeshna nigroflava Martin, 1908
- Aeshna ossiliensis Mierzejewski, 1913
- Aeshna palmata Hagen, 1856 – Paddle-tailed Darner
- Aeshna persephone Donnelly, 1961 – Persephone's Darner
- Aeshna petalura Martin, 1909
- Aeshna rileyi Calvert, 1892
- Aeshna scotias Pinhey, 1952
- Aeshna septentrionalis Burmeister, 1839 – Azure Darner
- Aeshna serrata Hagen, 1856
- Aeshna sitchensis Hagen, 1861 – Zigzag Darner
- Aeshna subarctica Walker, 1908 – Subarctic Darner
- Aeshna subpupillata McLachlan, 1896
- Aeshna tuberculifera Walker, 1908 – Black-tipped Darner
- Aeshna umbrosa Walker, 1908 – Shadow Darner
- Aeshna undulata Bartenev, 1930
- Aeshna verticalis Hagen, 1861 – Green-striped Darner.
- Aeshna viridis Eversmann, 1836 – Green Hawker
- Aeshna walkeri Kennedy, 1917 – Walker's Darner.
- Aeshna williamsoniana Calvert, 1905 – Williamson's Darner
- Aeshna wittei Fraser, 1955
- Aeshna yemenensis Waterston, 1985
[edit] References - Corbet, P. S. 1999. Dragonflies: Behavior and Ecology of Odonata. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA, 829pp.
- von Ellenrieder, N., 2003. A synopsis of the Neotropical species of 'Aeshna' Fabricius: the genus Rhionaeschna Förster (Odonata: Aeshnidae). - Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 146 (1): 67-207.
- ^ "Dragonflies of the Family Aeshnidae in British Columbia". http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Content_Files/Files/aeshnidae_of_BC.pdf. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
[edit] External links |