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Survey discovers new dragonflies

Staff Writer, with CNA

A decade-long survey has recorded 17 new species of dragonfly, boosting the total number of species found in the nation from 138 to 155, sources at the Council of Agriculture's Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI) said yesterday.

The newly discovered species include sarasaechna tsaopiensis, sarasaechna lieni and somatochlora taiwana -- all endemic only to Taiwan -- as well as macromidia ishidai asahina, mortonagrion hirosei asahina, rhyothemis regia regia, trithemis pallidinervis, sympetrum fonscolombii, sympetrum cordulegaster and sympetrum depressiuscula -- species first observed in Taiwan, the TFRI said.

TFRI researchers said that among the recently observed species, macromidia ishidai asahina and mortonagrion hirosei asahina are registered as endangered by the World Conservation Union, while rhyothemis regia regia and four other dragonflies only visit the nation during certain seasons or under certain climatic conditions.

Researchers said that most of the dragonflies spotted before 1982 were identified by foreigners, usually Japanese entomologists, indicating a weakness in Taiwan's entomologic research.

During the decade following 1996, however, local researchers have stepped up the pace and identified 17 new species of dragonflies, of which 15 were recorded by TFRI research fellow Yei Wen-chi (葉文琪) alone.

Nevertheless, the researchers warned that dragonfly habitats around the nation have been seriously threatened by the over-development of land and said that mortonagrion hirosei asahina is in the most dire situation as its habitat in the estuaries in Wugu (五股), Taipei County, is currently undergoing development.
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