The skimmers or perchers and their relatives form the Libellulidae, the largest dragonfly family in the world. It is sometimes considered to contain the Corduliidae as the subfamily Corduliinae and the Macromiidae as the subfamily Macromiinae. Even if these are excluded, there remains a family of over 1000 species. With nearly worldwide distribution, these are almost certainly the most often seen of all dragonflies.
The common whitetail or long-tailed skimmer is a common dragonfly across much of North America, with a striking and unusual appearance. The male's chunky white body, combined with the brownish-black bands on its otherwise translucent wings, give it a checkered look. Females have a brown body and a different pattern of wing spots, closely resembling that of female Libellula pulchella, the twelve-spotted skimmer. Whitetail females can be distinguished by their smaller size, shorter bodies, and white zigzag abdominal stripes; the abdominal stripes of L. puchella are straight and yellow.
Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) is the spacer DNA situated between the small-subunit ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and large-subunit rRNA genes in the chromosome or the corresponding transcribed region in the polycistronic rRNA precursor transcript.
Libellula depressa, the broad-bodied chaser or broad-bodied darter, is one of the most common dragonflies in Europe and central Asia. It is very distinctive with a very broad flattened abdomen, four wing patches and, in the male, the abdomen becomes pruinose blue.
Libellula quadrimaculata, known in Europe as the four-spotted chaser and in North America as the four-spotted skimmer, is a dragonfly of the family Libellulidae found widely throughout Europe, Asia, and North America.
The Bifidobacteriaceae are the only family of bacteria in the order Bifidobacteriales. According to the 16S rRNA-based LTP release 106 published by 'The All-Species Living Tree' Project, the order Bifidobacteriales is a clade nested within the suborder Micrococcineae, also the genus Bifidobacterium is paraphyletic to the other genera within the family, i.e. the other genera are nested within Bifidobacterium.
The Drosophilinae are the largest subfamily in the Drosophilidae. The other subfamily is the Steganinae.
Pantala flavescens, the globe skimmer, globe wanderer or wandering glider, is a wide-ranging dragonfly of the family Libellulidae. This species and Pantala hymenaea, the "spot-winged glider", are the only members of the genus Pantala. It was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1798. It is considered to be the most widespread dragonfly on the planet with good population on every continent except Antarctica although rare in Europe. Globe skimmers make an annual multigenerational journey of some 18,000 km ; to complete the migration, individual globe skimmers fly more than 6,000 km —one of the farthest known migrations of all insect species.
Celithemis is a genus of dragonflies in the family Libellulidae. They are known commonly as pennants. There are eight species in this monophyletic genus. They are mainly distributed in eastern North America.
Thunnus is a genus of ocean-dwelling, ray-finned bony fish from the mackerel family, Scombridae. More specifically, Thunnus is one of five genera which make up the tribe Thunnini – a tribe that is collectively known as the tunas. Also called the true tunas or real tunas, Thunnus consists of eight species of tuna, divided into two subgenera. The word Thunnus is the Middle Latin form of the Greek thýnnos – which is in turn derived from thynō. The first written use of the word was by Homer.
The Tetrakas and allies are a newly validated family of songbirds. They were formally named Bernieridae in 2010. The family currently consists of eleven species of small forest birds. These birds are all endemic to Madagascar.
16S ribosomal RNA is the RNA component of the 30S subunit of a prokaryotic ribosome. It binds to the Shine-Dalgarno sequence and provides most of the SSU structure.
28S ribosomal RNA is the structural ribosomal RNA (rRNA) for the large subunit (LSU) of eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes, and thus one of the basic components of all eukaryotic cells. It has a size of 25S in plants and 28S in mammals, hence the alias of 25S–28S rRNA.
Libelluloidea is a superfamily of dragonflies.
Kelletia is a genus of large sea snails, whelks, a marine gastropod molluscs in the family Austrosiphonidae, the true whelks.
The blue corporal, also known as little corporal, is a dragonfly in the Libellulidae, or skimmer family. First described as Libellula deplanata by Jules Pierre Rambur in 1842, it is common across much of the eastern United States.
Libellula comanche, the Comanche skimmer, is a species of skimmer in the family Libellulidae. It is found in Central America and North America.
Libellula auripennis, the golden-winged skimmer, is a species of skimmer in the family Libellulidae. It is found in North America.
Libellula needhami, or Needham's skimmer, is a species of skimmer in the family of dragonflies known as Libellulidae. It is found in the Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico, and the United States.
Libellula axilena, the bar-winged skimmer, is a species of skimmer in the dragonfly family Libellulidae. It is found in North America.
