DAMSELFLY
AND ECOLOGICAL ARMAGEDDON - ENVIRONMENT
News:
Damselfly species found
in Western Ghats named after climate impact on insects
What's
in the news?
● A new damselfly species has been discovered in Kerala’s southern Western Ghats.
Key
takeaways:
● Researchers from MIT-World Peace University in Pune named the insect ‘Armageddon reedtail’ or protostictaarmageddonia, to draw attention to the global decline of insect populations due to rampant habitat loss and climate change.
Armageddon
Reedtail:
● The species was discovered northeast of Thiruvananthapuram.
Habitat:
● Its only habitat is primary montane streams, where it thrives beneath dense canopy cover.
Features:
●
It has a captivating dark brown to black body with vibrant greenish-blue
eyes, and half of its eight abdominal segments are marked with delicate pale
blue markings.
●
The new species is distinct from other
damselflies.
Ecological
Armageddon:
●
The term ‘ecological armageddon’ is used
to describe the devastating decline of
insect populations around the world.
● This phenomenon, also called insect apocalypse, affects entire ecosystems because insects pollinate, cycle nutrients and provide food for other animals.
Go
back to basics:
Odonatology:
●
The study
of insects, such as dragonflies, that belong to the zoological group
Odonata.