At this moment one checklist is dealt with: the checklist of Turkish dragonflies is updated, reviewed and commented:
The checklist is split
in two pages: Zygoptera
and Anisoptera.
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Or read about the Turkish checklist the following introduction.
KALKMAN, V.J., M. WASSCHER & G.J. VAN PELT,
2003. An annotated checklist of the Odonata of Turkey.
Odonatologica 32( 3), 215-236.
V.J. Kalkman, M. Wasscher & G.J. van Pelt
Our knowledge of the dragonfly fauna of Turkey is mainly based on the review article by Dumont (1977), and the book on Turkish dragonflies by Demirsoy (1982). Dumont presented all known records up to 1977 from Turkey and the adjacent Mediterranean islands, listing a total of 89 species for Turkey (five of which divisible into two or more subspecies). At least 8 species were listed as ‘to be expected’. This article still forms the basis for research on Turkish dragonflies. The work of Demirsoy (1982) contains a key to the species, a review of known records and a number of new records from his own collection at the Hacetepe University in Ankara. Unfortunately, the book is written in Turkish, which makes it less accessible to science.
More recently, a great deal of new information has become available, partly in the form of faunistic regional studies (e.g., Busse, 1993; Seidenbusch, 1995), or merely as notes on the presence of a single species (e.g., Arlt, 1999). Also some taxonomic revisions of supraspecific taxa with representatives in Turkey have been published (e.g. Battin, 1993; Jödicke, 1994). As a consequence, the list of Odonata known from Turkey has changed significantly. Here an updated checklist of the Odonata of Turkey is presented, and the main changes as compared to Dumont (1977) and Demirsoy (1982) are discussed.
The present checklist is based on the combined records of Dumont (1977) and Demirsoy (1982), and new records are incorporated, including recently collected material present in the Dutch collections of the ‘Zoologisch Museum Amsterdam’ (ZMA) and the ‘Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie’, Leiden (now Naturalis). The list of species ‘to be expected’ has been revised on the basis of literature on the fauna of adjacent regions. At present a total of 105 taxa (species and subspecies) are known to occur in Turkey with certainty, and at least 19 taxa are to be expected.
The list of species ‘to be expected’ can be divided according to the distribution of the species:
South-east Europe. In Thracia Erythromma najas and Lestes viridis might very well occur as these species have been found in SE Bulgaria. Also some subspecies may have to be added to the fauna of Turkey (e.g., Gomphus f. flavipes, Onychogomphus f. forcipatus), as these have been reported from nearby parts of Bulgaria and Greece. Some of these species are indeed known to occur in Thracia without being identified at the subspecific level.
Caucasus. In North East Turkey both Leuchorrinia caudalis and Sympetrum danae might occur as these species are present in the Caucasus. Also L. viridis viridis is likely to be found in NE Turkey:
Mediterranean coast of Israel, Libanon and Syria. Three species found in the Levant might be present in southern Turkey. Of these Calopteryx hyalina is the most likely candidate. Agriocnemis sania and Zygonyx torridus have not been found in or north of the Lebanon, and their presence in Turkey appears doubtful.
Iran/Iraq. The southeastern part of Turkey, adjacent to Iran, Iraq and Syria, has not been investigated thoroughly, and the information on the fauna of the adjacent countries is also scarce. In the lower part of Turkey roughly between the Euphrates and the Tigris the following species are to be expected: Ischnura evansi, I. senegalensis, Gomphus kinzelbachi and Orthetrum ransonnetti. Except for G. kinzelbachi all these species live in arid regions. In the mountainous area of the extreme South East of Turkey C. persicum might occur.
Two species listed in either Dumont (1977) or Demirsoy (1982) have been omitted from the present checklist, and two are listed as ‘to be expected’. The record of a female Coenagrion hastulatum published by Schneider (1845) is unlikely as this species has a more boreal distribution. Ophiogomphus cecilia was reported by Sélys (1887) from Turkey, but the species has not been brought on record ever since. As the occurrence of the species in Turkey cannot be excluded, we list the species as ‘to be expected’. Paragomphus genei is only recorded from an exuviae collected near Antakya (Schmidt, 1954), but it remains uncertain whether this specimen pertains to this species or to P. lineatus (see Schneider, 1985a). We therefore list P. genei as ‘to be expected’ in Turkey. Cordulegaster bidentata is replaced by C. insignis in Thracia and adjacent regions, and the species does not occur in Turkey.
The checklist is split
in two pages: Zygoptera
and Anisoptera.