Patterns of emergence, import of egg energy and energy export via emerging dragonfly populations in a tropical pond

Abstract

The most abundant dragonflies Brachythemis contaminata, Orthetrum sabina, Diplacodes trivialis, Pantala flavescens and Trithemis festiva in the tropical pond Idumban emerged from November to April during the years 1973,1974 and 1975. The date of initiation of emergence of all the species was synchronized and tied to the events following the north west monsoon in November. During the seasons '73-74 and '74-75, as many as 10,693 and 7,910 adults emerged; females outnumbered the males in all the 5 species; male populations of B. contaminata, O. sabina, D. trivialis, P. flavescens and T. festiva represented 47, 48, 46, 49 and 44% during the '73-74 season, 48, 48, 46, 46 and 49% during the '74-75 season, respectively. The adult dragonflies equivalent to 2,442 Kcal emerged from the Pond during the season '73'-74. Of this, B. contaminata contributed 30%, D. trivialis 7%, O. sabina 12%, P. flavescens 23% and T. festiva 28%. For the season '74-75, the dragonflies equivalent to 1,602 Kcal emerged from the Pond and the contribution was in the following order: B. contaminata: 31%, O. sabina: 8%, D. trivialis: 13%, P. flavescens: 27% and T. festiva: 21%. Import of energy due to inoculation of B. contaminata eggs into the Pond Idumban was 73 Kcal/ year and the output from the Pond via emerging B. contaminata population alone amounted to 620 Kcal/ year; the net energy loss from the Pond was 548 Kcal/ year. During either season, as much as 99.7% of B. contaminata eggs failed to attain adulthood due to infertility (5.8%), unhatchability (12%) and predation during the egg and nymphal stages (82.5%). During the study, the GPP of the Pond was 26,073 Kcal/m²/ year, and output of energy through emergence of 5 dragonfly species amounted to 0.0045 Kcal/m²/year, i.e. 0.00002% of the GPP is lost through the emerging carnivorous odonates; comparable values available for the emerging detritivorous chironomids, herbivorous dipterans and mayflies fall between 1.0 and 0.1%.