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Fluctuating asymmetry of wing venation in damselflies Ischnura elegans (V.d. Lind.) (Odonata, Coenagrionidae) and prospects of its use as a biological indicator of ecological quality of fresh-water reservoirs

  • Ecology
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Abstract

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) of wing venation has been studied in five populations of the damselfly Ischnura elegans (V.d. Lind.) for bioindication of the environment in 2010 and 2011. The seasonal and sexual features of FA have been assessed. Different characteristics of FA in the damselfly wings have been found not to correlate with each other. In order to explain differently directed changes in FA of damselflies from the populations studied, which were influenced by temperature-oxygen stress of 2010, the hypothesis of differentiated death of specimens with shaky stability of development has been suggested. Possible use of FA as an instrument of biomonitoring of the ecological quality of water reservoirs has been put into question.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    G. I. Ryazanova & A. S. Polygalov

Authors
  1. G. I. Ryazanova
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  2. A. S. Polygalov
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Original Russian Text © G.I. Ryazanova, A.S. Polygalov, 2013, published in Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Biologiya, 2013, No. 3, pp. 27–32.

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Ryazanova, G.I., Polygalov, A.S. Fluctuating asymmetry of wing venation in damselflies Ischnura elegans (V.d. Lind.) (Odonata, Coenagrionidae) and prospects of its use as a biological indicator of ecological quality of fresh-water reservoirs. Moscow Univ. Biol.Sci. Bull. 68, 195–199 (2013). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0096392513040081

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S0096392513040081

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