Wing Morphology of a Forest Damselfly Is Related to Landscape Structure

• DOI: 10.2307/3545723
• Publication Date: 2006-11-16T18:17:22Z
• Authors: Philip D. Taylor; Gray Merriam
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences

We demonstrate that, after correcting for the effects of size, the wing lengths, wing widths and thoracic weights of the forest damselfly Calopteryx maculata differ between populations along forested streams, and those along streams through pasture. Pasture landscapes can be considered as fragmented forest landscapes; forest landscapes are continuous. In the fragmented landscapes some C. maculata fly across intervening pasture to reach foraging sites in forest. We propose that there is morphological plasticity within the species that is revealed through the landscape process of habitat fragmentation and that there is micro-scale selection within the fragmented landscapes for individuals that are better suited to make these flights