Ice-age-refugia

Guides

• Aeshna juncea

  Common Hawker, Moorland Hawker, Sedge Darner

  Aeshna juncea, known as the Common Hawker, Moorland Hawker, or Sedge Darner, is a large hawker dragonfly with a Holarctic distribution spanning the Palearctic from Ireland to Japan and northern North America. It is one of the larger Aeshna species and is strongly associated with acidic bog habitats, particularly in Scotland where it is a prominent bog specialist. The species has a flight period from June to early October. Recent genomic research has revealed that Alaskan populations underwent population bottlenecks during the most recent ice age, and the species has been used as a model for studying genome size variation in Odonata driven by transposons and repetitive elements.

  dragonflyhawkerbog-specialistpeatlandHolarcticArcticgenome-model-organismAeshnidaeOdonataacidic-poolsSphagnumincomplete-metamorphosispredatorScotlandAlaskapopulation-bottleneckice-age-refugiatransposonsgenome-size-variation