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Distribution and Diversity of Libellulidae (Odonata: Anisoptera) from Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot Region and their Phylogenetic Organization

Abstract

Mizoram represents an important part of the Indo-Myanmar biodiversity hotspot situated in the southernmost part of Northeast India. Direct searching and observation method with opportunistic sample collection was employed to survey the distribution of dragonfly family Libellulidae. The distribution according to altitudinal range and forest types has been established and correlated with humidity, rainfall and temperature. Twenty eight species of Libellulids are recorded in the present study; of these ten species are new records from the Northeastern Indian region. Higher diversity was confined to the lower altitudes of the Tropical Wet Evergreen forests. The phylogenetic relationship among the Libellulids was established using two mitochondrial genes CO1 and ND1. The molecular phylogeny was inferred by using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and the Bayesian methods. Among the eighteen genera analyzed, Trithemis, Neurothemis, Tramea and Orthetrum were recovered as monophyletic. The nucleotide distance between Tramea limbata and Tramea basilaris was found to be lowest and the highest was found between Potamarcha congener and Neurothemis tullia in the combined CO1 and ND1 gene.

Laltanpuii K, Lalremsanga HT, Babu R, Senthil Kumar N2 and Manu Thomas

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