IUCN Species of the Day: Golden Dancing-Jewel

 

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species(tm)

Photo credit: K.-D.B. Dijkstra

 

The Golden Dancing-jewel, Platycypha auripes, is classified as ‘VULNERABLE’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. This species owes its name to its golden colour and to the dancing mating flights that males perform when a female is present. The inflated and coloured legs are used to attract females and to frighten away other males.

The Golden Dancing-jewel is found along clear and fast-running forest streams and rivers in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania (e.g. Usambara, Ulugur and Udzungwa). The forests are highly fragmented, and suffer from deforestation and water pollution by the growing human population in and around them.

Due to the forest destruction in the Eastern Arc Mountains, often only forests on hill-tops remain which lack suitable breeding habitats for the Golden Dancing-jewel. Currently only parts of the East Usambara and the Udzungwa Mountains experience some kind of protection.

 

Geographic Range of the Golden Dancing-JewelCredit: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™

 

To learn more about the Golden Dancing-Jewel, click here.  Or visit the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ by clicking their logo below.

 

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To learn more about the Bush Warriors “Species of the Day” feature, please click here and read up on our initiative to raise awareness about the loss of earth’s biodiversity.

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