Abstract
A successful conservation strategy for an insect species should address the habitat requirements of all life stages and all activities performed by those life stages. In this paper the night-time roosting habitat and behaviour of the endangered damselfly Coenagrion mercuriale (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) was investigated by marking damselflies with UV fluorescent paint. Night-time observations revealed that individuals did not roost together and those that were recorded on more than one occasion did not return to the same spot each night. There was no apparent preference for roosting close to the watercourses. C. mercuriale roosted towards the top of the vegetation and this vegetation was considerably taller than the mean height of the vegetation in the study area. Adults were strongly associated with two tussock-forming monocots, Juncus inflexus and Deschampsia cespitosa. Differences in the abundance of these plants were shown to result in large differences in the numbers of C. mercuriale roosting in different parts of the site. The importance of providing these structural elements of habitat as part of a wider conservation strategy for this species is discussed.
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Acknowledgements
J.R.R. was funded by the Environment Agency, English Nature, the Countryside Council for Wales and the University of Liverpool. Additional funding for the MRR survey was provided by the Itchen Sustainability Study Group, the Environment Agency, the Natural Environment Research Council (Grant no. NER/A/S/2000/01322), Bovis Homes Ltd., Persimmon Homes Ltd. and Wimpey Homes Ltd. We thank Tim Sykes for his enthusiasm and support for the project and to the numerous field assistants involved in data collection late at night. We also thank the staff of the Itchen Valley Country Park, in particular Kevin Young, for providing access to the study site and for their support and interest. Coenagrion mercuriale is protected under Schedule 5 of the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) and all work was carried out under licence from English Nature.
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Rouquette, J.R., Thompson, D.J. Roosting site selection in the endangered damselfly, Coenagrion mercuriale, and implications for habitat design. J Insect Conserv 11, 187–193 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-006-9030-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-006-9030-0