Critically Endangered
Megalagrion nesiotes
Megalagrion nesiotes
Megalagrion nesiotes is a damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae (order Odonata), recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
Females are primarily brownish.
Adults are usually 46–50 mm (1.8–2.0 in) in length.
Range and habitat
Flying earwig Hawaiian damselfly adults prefer moist areas as habitats. The naiads are believed to live in terrestrial or semi-terrestrial areas, but have never been observed or found. The flying earwig Hawaiian damselfly used to be found on the tropical islands of Hawaii and Maui.
In the past, the flying earwig Hawaiian damselfly lived on the islands of Hawaii and Maui, in the U.S. State of Hawaii. There were at least seven populations of this damselfly on the island of Hawaii, and five populations on the island of Maui.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Using the diet of narrow-winged damselflies as a reference, scientists suggest that the flying earwig Hawaiian damselfly adults prey on small insects such as flies, mosquitoes, and moths. The immatures have a more aquatic diet among them mosquito larvae.
Breeding of the flying earwig Hawaiian damselfly takes place in leaf litter or damp banks near streams. When foraging while flying, the adult damselflies use their spiny legs to form a basket to capture prey.
In crisis
Currently, there is only one population left in east Maui. Limited distribution and small population size make this species especially vulnerable to habitat loss and exotic species invasion. In 2010, the species was federally listed as an endangered species in the United States.
Now there is likely only one population left in east Maui. No quantitative estimate of the size of this remaining population is available.
Megalagrion nesiotes is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Megalagrion nesiotes, Wikidata item Q1307518. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
