An exceptional honour: A newly discovered dragonfly species was named after the TU Dresden zoologist Klaus Reinhardt. The Russian insect researcher Oleg Kosterin and his Japanese colleague Naoto Yokoi have traced the dragonfly in a remote mountainous border region between Cambodia and Laos and named it “Asiagomphus reinhardti”. They honour his merits and achievements for the promotion of the international dragonfly research. The dragonfly, about six centimetres long, lives close to mountain streams. So far, only male examples are known: a black body with yellow spots and green eyes. As a larva they live for numerous year dug in the mud bottom.

“Having a newly discovered animal or plant species named after oneself is one of the most beautiful awards for a biologist”, says Klaus Reinhardt. “I am extraordinarily honoured, for sure, but there are a lot of other dragonfly researchers who would have deserved this award before me.”

The scientific article entitled “Asiagomphus reinhardti sp. nov. (Odonata, Gomphidae) from eastern Cambodia and southern Laos” describing the new species has been published in the Zootaxa journal. The abstract is available here: https://http://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4103.1.3

Media Inquiries:
Prof. Klaus Reinhardt
Tel.: +49 (0) 351 463 375 34