Abstract
Dragonflies belong to the group of organisms with numerous well-differentiated species-specific characters at the adult stage, on the one hand, and a significantly smaller number or even the absence of such characters at the early ontogenetic stages. An example of the genus Aeschna is used to show difficulties in revealing morphological and biochemical characters allowing identification of larval dragonflies belonging to closely related species of the family. Distinct morphometric characters can be found only in late-instar larvae. The presence of species-specific proteins in the homogenates of thoracic muscles provides the possibility of using biochemical tests for species identification of larvae. Infestation by parasites has no effects on the biochemical parameters studied. Species identification of the early-instar dragonfly larvae is still problematic.
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Sukhacheva, G.A., Kryukova, N.A. & Glupov, V.V. On the Roles of Morphological and Biochemical Criteria in Species Identification: An Example of Dragonfly Larvae of the Genus Aeschna . Biology Bulletin 30, 63–68 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022019611654
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022019611654