Adult damselflies are a spectacular vision of summer, streaking through the air above pond surfaces. Yet survival through their earlier aquatic life stages is extremely precarious. Equipped with leaf-like lamellae hinged at the end of the abdomen for propulsion, the structures provide the perfect appendages for passing predators to grab onto. But the larval insects have a self-preservation mechanism that helps them to escape hungry predators: they self amputate – autotomize – trapped lamellae. Jennifer Gleason, Douglas Fudge and Beren Robinson from the University of Guelph, Canada, explain that the ability of a larva to shed its lamellae with ease improves its chances of survival, which might lead larvae that inhabit heavily predated waters to develop relatively fragile lamellar joints to increase their chances of survival (p. ). To test the theory, the Canadians measured the force required to break damselfly larvae lamellar joints, as well as the size and cuticle thickness of the joint. They discovered that the joints of damselfly larvae from fishless ponds – where carnivorous dragonfly larvae flourish – were much more fragile than the joints of larvae from ponds where there were few dragonfly larvae. ‘This suggests that autotomy may evolve in larval damselflies under selection from small grasping predators like larval dragonflies by favouring smaller joint size or reduced cuticle area of lamellae joints’, says the team.
