Sympetrum parvulum

Sympetrum parvulum is a species of libellulid dragonfly. They range from 2.2 to 2.6 cm long.^[2]

Sympetrum parvulum
Female
Male
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Odonata
Infraorder:	Anisoptera
Family:	Libellulidae
Genus:	Sympetrum
Species:	S. parvulum
Binomial name
Sympetrum parvulum (Bartenev, 1912)
Synonyms
Sympetrum eroticoides Oguma, 1922 Sympetrum fuscousus Kobayashi, 1941 Sympetrum parvum Tada, 1942 Sympetrum ruptum Needham,1930 Thecodiplax parvula Bartenev, 1912

Habitat

S. parvulum is found in China, the Russian Far East, Japan, Korea, and the Matsu Islands in Taiwan.^[3] The dragonflies are inhabitants of vegetation-rich marshes and adjacent forest fringes,^[2] as well as shaded areas of paddy fields.^[4]

Behaviour

Males are territorial.^[2] In some dragonflies, the male escorts the female while she deposits her eggs by holding on to her head with his abdominal legs. This is called the tandem behaviour. The other kind of protective behaviour practised by some dragonfly males is simply called guarding, wherein the male stays close to, but not actually touching, the female, and acts in an aggressive manner to other males, similar to the way he protects his territory. Which of these escort behaviours the males adopt usually varies my species, but in Sympetrum parvulum, both protective behaviours are reported. A 1979 paper published in Researches on Population Ecology studied S. parvulum's escort behaviour in detail.^[5]

Conservation

Sympetrum parvulum was assessed as "Least Concern" on the IUCN red list in 2007.^[1]