Targeted Odonata Wing Digitization (TOWD) Project

Dragonfly wings are subject to various selection pressures. Wing morphology is largely shaped by intra-, intersexual and natural selection. Territoriality, courtship displays, different kinds of mating systems, seasonal migrations, foraging behavior and other aspects of dragonfly life history and behavior all require specific functional traits of the wing. Within the scope of the Targeted Odonata Wing Digitization (TOWD) project, the wings of all North American Odonata species as well as further New World taxa are currently digitized to provide a resource both for training automatic recognition systems (Odomatic) and for studying the evolution of wing characters and shape. Recent morphometric work based on the extensive collection of digital images gathered in the TOWD database is presented, and the perspectives for further research in the fields of evolutionary biology, systematics and behavioral ecology are outlined. Funding provided by NSF grants 1611642 and 1564386.