Pentaphlebia
Genus of damselflies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pentaphlebia is a genus of damselflies in the family Pentaphlebiidae, one of three families in the superfamily Tatocnemidoidea.[3][4] The genus occurs in tropical forests of west-central Africa and currently contains three described species.[3]
| Pentaphlebia | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Odonata |
| Suborder: | Zygoptera |
| Superfamily: | Tatocnemidoidea |
| Family: | Pentaphlebiidae Novelo-Gutiérrez, 1995[1] |
| Genus: | Pentaphlebia Förster, 1909[2] |
Species of Pentaphlebia are associated with forest streams and are characterised by their slender bodies, transparent wings and predominantly red to coral-red colouration.[2] Pentaphlebiidae contains only the genus Pentaphlebia and is recognised as a distinct evolutionary lineage of damselflies.[4][5]
Description
Species of Pentaphlebia are medium-sized damselflies with slender bodies and transparent wings.[2] In the original description of the genus, Förster noted the unusual arrangement of veins in the wings and the predominantly blood-red to coral-red colouration of the abdomen.[2]
Adults are typically found resting on vegetation beside clear forest streams.[2] The larvae possess distinctive abdominal gill tufts, a feature shared with only a few other damselfly lineages and important in the taxonomic history of the group.[1]
Distribution and habitat
Taxonomic history
Förster described the genus Pentaphlebia in 1909 from specimens collected in Cameroon by the missionary Heinrich Stahl.[2] For much of the twentieth century the genus was included in Amphipterygidae together with several geographically isolated genera from Central America, South America and Asia.[6]
Novelo-Gutiérrez (1995) recognised that the larvae of Pentaphlebia and Rimanella share distinctive gill tufts that are unique among damselflies and grouped them together in the subfamily Pentaphlebiinae.[1]
Subsequent morphological and molecular studies found little support for a close relationship among the genera traditionally included in Amphipterygidae.[4][7][8] Modern classifications therefore recognise Pentaphlebiidae as a separate family containing only the genus Pentaphlebia.[4][5]
In 2026, Carter and colleagues recognised Pentaphlebiidae, Protolestidae and Tatocnemididae as the superfamily Tatocnemidoidea, based on phylogenomic studies that resolved the three families as a distinct lineage of damselflies.[9]
Species
The following species are currently placed in Pentaphlebia:[3]
- Pentaphlebia gamblesi Parr, 1977
- Pentaphlebia mangana Dijkstra, Lambret & Mézière, 2015
- Pentaphlebia stahli Förster, 1909
Etymology
The family name Pentaphlebiidae is derived from the type genus Pentaphlebia, with the standard zoological suffix -idae used for animal families.
The genus name Pentaphlebia is presumably derived from the Greek πέντε (pente, "five") and φλέψ (phleps, "vein"), referring to the unusually small number of cross-veins in the wings noted by Förster in the original description.[2]
The species name stahli is an eponym honouring Heinrich Stahl, who collected the type specimens on which the genus was established.[2]