RELATIONSHIPS OF SOME EUROPEAN CALOPTERYX SPECIES SUGGESTED BY TIME ANALYSIS OF COURTSHIP FLIGHTS (ODONATA, CALOPTERYGIDAE)

The courtship flights of males of Calopteryx virgo (Linnaeus 1758), C splendens (Harris 1782), C xanthostoma (Charpentier 1825) and C haemor rhoidalis (Vander Linden 1825) where filmed with a slow motion camera in N' Germany and S' France. The shots where taken under unmanipulated conditions as well as in a provoked situation, with a fixed female. T he parameters wingbeat frequency and phase relationship from hind- and forewings where studied. The most important differences are: In C spl endens and C xanthostoma the fore- and hindwings move nearly absolutly counterwise. That means, while the forewings are at the start of the upstroke, the hindwings are at the start of the downstroke. So here th e phase relationship is 180 degrees. Phase relationship in C virgo is 100 degrees. Here the forewings reach the changing points before the h indwings. C haemorrhoidalis move the hindwings nearly synchronously to the forewings but with a very small amplitude. In reference to the wi ngbeat frequency and the continuity of the phase relationship, the Cal opteryx-males court more intensively in the unmanipulated situation, t han in the provoked one. With respect to the studied parameter, there is no difference between C splendens and C xanthostoma, in contrast to C haemorrhoidalis and C virgo, which are different to each other and to the first two.