Libellago, Selys, 1840

Orr, Albert G. W., 2024, A review of present knowledge of larvae of the Calopterygoidea (Zygoptera) of the Oriental realm, including keys to families and known genera, Zootaxa 5497 (2), pp. 209-243 : 231

Libellago

The genus includes 25 species, most, but not all, are small for the family, and range throughout most of the Oriental realm. Larger species occur especially on Sulawesi. The larva of Libellago lineata was described Fraser (1919a, 1928) with the habitus illustrated, with some omissions, and a rough figure of part of the mask, which does not conform to the detailed description; however the entire prementum and in-life habitus are figured by Orr et al. (2024). Orr (2003, 2005) figures the habitus of L. hyalina (Selys) and Ngiam & Ng (2022) show a photograph of the dorsal habitus of L. aurantiaca (Selys) . Orr et al. (2024) provide a detailed description of L. hyalina as well as photographs of living L. lineata . All species are small and have characteristic thin tapered caudal spikes with a slight basal swelling. The spikes are long in L. hyalina and L. lineata but shorter in L. aurantiaca . The antennae tend to be relatively shorter than in other genera studied. The prementum in L. hyalina and L. lineata differs sufficiently to separate the two species, but in both is shorter and broader than in other genera and has distinctly serrate lateral anterior margins not recorded in other genera except possibly the much larger Paracypha . All three species lack a dark spot on the tip of the pedicel, present in all other known chlorocyphids. In mainland Asia and much of Sundaland their small size also makes these larvae immediately recognisable as belonging to Libellago , but in Sulawesi much larger members of the genus occur ( van Tol 2007, Dow et al. 2024). It is not known if these species share the presently recognised generic traits.