Odonate species are classified in terms of their thermoregulatory behavior into flier and percher categories. Larger perchers could be more efficient thermoregulators in sunny sites and smaller perchers depend more on air temperature. In this paper, an analysis of the behavioral temporal budget of an odonate neotropical assemblage was performed to determine the role of body size on territorial defense and general behavioral strategies. This analysis revealed three groups based on time budget. The first and second groups contained the species that remained perched for most of the activity time, but species of the first group differ from the second group by the larger proportion of transition flights. The third group contained species which were usually observed patrolling or in reproductive activities. The larger species spent more time in patrol and territorial defense activities, while smaller species remained perched. Larger dragonflies, with better thermoregulatory abilities could spend more time in reproductive activities. The behavioral classification of fliers and perchers is considered extremely useful but could oversimplify the behavioral patterns among species that have a wide body size variation. It is proposed that a behavioral continuum associated with the body size variation in perchers could explain some patterns of species interactions in odonate communities.
Body size; density-dependent effect; neotropical; territoriality; time budget
