Synlestidae
Family of damselflies
Synlestidae is a family of damselflies commonly known as sylphs or malachites. The family includes nine living genera distributed across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Australia and the Caribbean. Members are typically large, slender damselflies with metallic green, bronze or black coloration and pale markings, and many species rest with their wings partly spread.
01Description
Most synlestids inhabit streams and rivers, particularly in forested habitats. The larvae are aquatic and possess short, vertically held caudal gills.
02Taxonomic history
Tillyard established Synlestinae in 1917 for the Australian genus Synlestes. Fraser later recognised two subfamilies within the group, Chlorolestinae and Synlestinae. Molecular and morphological studies in the twenty-first century have refined the limits of the family, including the transfer of the African genus Nubiolestes from Perilestidae to Synlestidae by Dijkstra and colleagues (2013).
The family is currently placed within the superfamily Lestoidea.
03Genera
The following genera are currently placed in Synlestidae:
- Chlorolestes Selys, 1862
- Chorismagrion Morton, 1914
- Ecchlorolestes Barnard, 1937
- Episynlestes Kennedy, 1920
- Megalestes Selys, 1862
- Nubiolestes Fraser, 1945
- Phylolestes Christiansen, 1947
- Sinolestes Needham, 1930
- Synlestes Selys, 1868
04Fossil record
Synlestidae has a modest fossil record extending from the Cretaceous to the Eocene, indicating a wider historical distribution than that of its living representatives.
Fossil genera
The following fossil genera are currently placed in Synlestidae:
- †Albertalestes Jouault and Nel, 2023
- †Cretaphylolestes Huang et al., 2021
- †Gaurimacia Vasilenko, 2005
- †Inacayalestes Petrulevičius, 2015
- †Madres Petrulevičius, 2018
- †Palaeophylolestes Doriath-Döhler et al., 2023
05Etymology
The family name Synlestidae is derived from the type genus Synlestes, with the standard zoological suffix -idae used for animal families.
The genus name Synlestes is derived from the Greek σύν (syn, "together"), combined with Lestes, a genus name derived from the Greek λῃστής (lēstēs, "robber"), indicating resemblance to that genus.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Synlestidae”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Chlorolestes tessellatus 2012 04 29 KZN Midlands.jpg by Alandmanson, CC BY-SA 3.0
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