Chlorocyphidae is a family of damselflies in the superfamily Calopterygoidea, commonly known as jewels or heliodors. Members of the family are typically small to medium-sized damselflies with brightly coloured bodies and often conspicuous wing markings. They inhabit forest streams and rivers throughout the Old World tropics, with their greatest diversity occurring in Southeast Asia.
Many species are noted for their metallic colours and elaborate courtship displays, with males using brightly coloured wings and body markings in territorial and mating behaviour. Chlorocyphidae is one of the most distinctive damselfly families and is consistently recovered as a monophyletic lineage in both morphological and molecular studies.
Taxonomic history Cowley (1937) recognised Chlorocyphidae as a distinct family of damselflies and noted that many contemporary authors used the alternative name Libellaginidae for the same group. The family has long been regarded as a distinctive lineage of tropical stream-dwelling damselflies.
Morphological and molecular studies have consistently supported the monophyly of Chlorocyphidae. Modern classifications recognise approximately twenty genera distributed throughout the Old World tropics.
Although the family-group name Libellaginidae Yakobson & Bianchi, 1905 predates Chlorocyphidae under the principle of priority, the latter name has been used overwhelmingly in the scientific literature for much of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Dijkstra et al. (2013) reported that Chlorocyphidae was preferred in almost 99% of published usage and recommended retaining it in the interests of nomenclatural stability.
Genera The following genera are currently placed in Chlorocyphidae: Africocypha Aristocypha Calocypha Chlorocypha Cyrano Disparocypha Heliocypha Heterocypha (monotypic) Indocypha Libellago Melanocypha Pachycypha Paracypha Platycypha Rhinocypha Rhinoneura Sclerocypha Stenocypha Sundacypha Watuwila
Etymology The family name Chlorocyphidae is derived from the type genus Chlorocypha, with the standard zoological suffix -idae used for animal families.
The genus name Chlorocypha was proposed by Fraser in 1928 as a replacement name during a discussion of the nomenclature of Micromerus and Libellago. Fraser did not explain the derivation of the name. It is probably derived from the Greek χλωρός (chlōros, "green" or "greenish-yellow"), a reference that may allude to the metallic coloration common in many members of the family, and cypha, a name element used in several damselfly genera.
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See also List of damselflies of the world (Chlorocyphidae)
References Hämäläinen, M., & Karube, H. (2001). Rhinocypha orea spec. nov., a new damselfly from Vietnam (Odonata: Chlorocyphidae). Zoologische Mededelingen, 75, 405-408.
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