A Drought-Resistant Larva of Pantala Flavescens (Fabricius, 1798) (Odonata: Libellulidae) in the Lençois Maranhenses, Ne-Brazil

A single male of Pantala flavescens was collected by chance with dry mud in the bed of a pond in the Lenc;6is Maranhenses (N-E Brazil) which had been dry for several months. It was noticed as a larva in an aquarium about seven days after the mud first had been wetted and it was then reared to the imaginal stage. Fifteen measurements were taken on three larval skins that could be recovered. These were fitted to literature data on larval development that had first been converted to exponential growth curves, in an effort to determine whether the drought-resistant stage had been an egg or a larva. It was found that that a drought-resistant egg was improbable, and that the larva had probably survived drought as an early instar (2-4). It is argued that early larval tolerance to drought may be common in Pantala, and may contribute as much to its success in semiarid environments as its rapid larval development.