Damselfly species found in Western Ghats named after climate impact on insects

• Recently, researchers from MIT-World Peace University from Pune discovered a new damselfly species in Kerala’s southern Western Ghats and named it as ‘Armageddon reedtail’.

Armageddon Reedtail

• The species was discovered northeast of Thiruvananthapuram.
• It has a captivating dark brown to black body with vibrant greenish-blue eyes, and half of its eight abdominal segments are marked with delicate pale blue markings.
• Its only habitat is primary montane streams, where it thrives beneath dense canopy cover.
• The name, Armageddon Reedtail, is a direct reference to the concept of “Ecological Armageddon”, a term used to describe the devastating decline of insect populations around the world.
• This species faces the threat of extinction due to habitat loss and changing environmental conditions.

Western Ghats

• It is also known as the Sahyadri Hills, are well known for their rich and unique assemblage of flora and fauna.
• The range is called Sahyadri in northern Maharashtra and Sahya Parvatham in Kerala.
• The northern portion of the narrow coastal plain between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea is known as the Konkan Coast.
• The central portion is called Kanara and the southern portion is called Malabar region or the Malabar Coast.
• The foothill region east of the Ghats in Maharashtra is known as Desh, while the eastern foothills of central Karnataka state is known as Malanadu.
• In the south the range is known as the Nilgiri malai in Tamil Nadu.
• It is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• It is one of the eight hotspots of biological diversity in the world due to its high level of biological diversity and endemism.

Prelims Takeaway

• Western Ghats