Intrasexual cannibalism
Our collated observations also represent some cases where individuals of the same sex act as predator as well as aided as prey. We extracted a total of 24 cases of Intrasexual cannibalism in Anisoptera (n=9) and Zygoptera (n=15) and involved 1) males feeding on male conspecifics, and 2) females feeding on female conspecifics. In male-male interactions, involved individuals were mature in case of Anisoptera, but in Zygoptera all the involved predators were mature and preys were tenerals. The male-male intrasexual cannibalism could arise from species recognition error, male-male competition for mating or an extreme outcome of territorial dispute. Male-male competition is fierce in odonates, and morphological and behavioral traits have evolved to benefits individuals and species in such competition (Khan & Herberstein, 2019; Khan & Herberstein, 2021). Intrasexual cannibalism in females could stem from species recognition error, and female-female competition for oviposition resources. Among the female zygopteran intrasexual cannibalism, we observed four instances where both the prey and predator were mature, and interestingly one of the instances involved both the prey and predator as andromorphic female of Ischnura senegalensis (Fig. 1 e-f). This is possibly due recognition error, or to increase the chances of matting. As andromorphic females tend to have very less chance of matting due their male appearance (Hinnekint, 1987).