Hetaerina calverti, Vega-Sánchez & Mendoza-Cuenca & Rodríguez, 2020

Vega-Sánchez, Yesenia Margarita, Mendoza-Cuenca, Luis Felipe & Rodríguez, Antonio González-, 2020, Hetaerina calverti (Odonata: Zygoptera: Calopterygidae) sp. nov., a new cryptic species of the American Rubyspot complex, Zootaxa 4766 (3), pp. 485-497 : 494-495

4.2. Hetaerina calverti , a cryptic species

Genetic and morphological data of both females and males suggest that H. calverti is a new species that is reproductively isolated from H. americana . However, although the differences in morphological structures such as the cerci in males and the intersternites in females differentiate the species, it is important to mention that interspecific variation in other characters such as wing-spot and body coloration is practically absent and, as we have already mentioned, this has been one of the biggest problems in the identification of possible new species within “ H. americana ”.

In recent years, the discovery of cryptic species in different groups, including odonates, has been increasing ( Damn et al. 2010). However, the causes of morphological stasis in these species remain unknown. Due to this, new questions arise such as: Are we underestimating the diversity of odonates? What is the importance of the reproductive system in cryptic speciation? And, bearing in mind that H. americana is one of the first species of damselflies described in North America (i.e. more than 200 years ago) and one of the best studied, it would not be surprising if this phenomenon is very common in other less studied odonates. It is also important to mention that in the work of Vega-Sánchez et al. (2019) the sampling was mainly in Mexico, hence it is possible that other cryptic species are found in northern and southern parts of the distribution, for example in California, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Acknowledgments

We thank Enrique González-Soriano for his help at the CNIN. We especially thank Yolanda Vega for her help in some illustrations, Ricardo Gaytán-Legaria for his help in the elaboration of the map and Goretty Mendoza for laboratory support. Comments by one anonymous reviewer, Dennis Paulson and Milen Marinov greatly contributed to improve earlier versions of the manuscript. Y. M. Vega-Sánchez thanks CONACyT (CVU 549239) and the Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas – UNAM for providing funding and facilities to develop graduate studies at UNAM. This article constitutes a partial fulfillment of the graduate program in Biological Sciences of UNAM of Yesenia M. Vega-Sánchez. We also thank the Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica (LANASE, ENES Morelia, UNAM) for providing facilities for the development of this work. This work was supported by grant MICH-2012- C05- 197824, Fondos Mixtos CONACYT-Gobierno del Estado de Michoacán.