Scarce Chaser Genome Project

Image source: Christian Fischer [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Scarce Chaser (Ladona fulva)

Contact: Oliver Niehuis

Researchers involved: 20
Size (or size of nearest relative): 1.2 Gb (other spp. of Libellula: 670-940)

Keywords (and why important): Evolutionary branching, (systematics)

Representative of Odonata: the dragonfly Ladona fulva occurs primarily in Central Europe and is a typical predator of insects at small ponds and creeks with dense vegetation. Like all dragonflies, Ladona fulva features a special mode of flight (indirect-direct wing stroke) and a form of indirect sperm transfer via a secondary intromittent organ at the second and third segment of the male abdomen, demarcating Odonata from all other winged insects (Pterygota).

Due to their mode of flight, peculiar sperm transfer, and their phylogenetic origin, dragonflies are crucial to understand major evolutionary steps at the base of the insect tree of life. Dragonflies also serve as models for developing bionical applications that are used in the industry (e.g., wing stroke mechanisms, head arrester systems).

Genomic Resources


For the most current version of the assembly, please use 'NCBI BioProject' (find link below). If the assembly is unavailable in the BioProject page (it is still being worked on), you can look under the 'BCM-HGSC data' (find link below) for intermediate versions of the assembly.


Web Apollo: A web-based sequence annotation editor for community annotation

For information about Web Apollo, please contact Monica Poelchau.

Additional Resources

Learn more about dragonflies