Overview
- The team’s formal description of Lyriothemis keralensis appears in the International Journal of Odonatology, authored by Dattaprasad Sawant, A. Vivek Chandran, Renjith Jacob Mathews and Krushnamegh Kunte.
- It was first recorded in 2013 at Varappetty near Kothamangalam and was long misidentified as the northeast India species Lyriothemis acigastra.
- Diagnostic features include a slimmer abdomen with distinct anal appendages and genitalia, with males blood-red with black markings and bulkier females yellow with black, measuring about three centimetres.
- Fieldwork shows the species occupies shaded vegetated canals and seasonal pools inside pineapple and rubber plantations rather than protected forests.
- Researchers report seasonal emergence during the monsoon and note that persistence in farm microhabitats outside reserves makes careful land-use management crucial.