Maps and habitat description of the Neoneura species observed in Suriname and the very north of Brazil

On the maps all collected Neoneura specimen from the region, present in the Naturalis (RMNH) collection in Leyden are shown. The maps show:

• the records are rather well distributed over the country 
• a few species have only been found in the coastal area (Neoneura bilinearis sensu Williamson, 1917 and N. cf. fulvicollis)
• one species is almost restricted to the savanna area (Neoneura gaida)
• one species is restricted to the southwest of Suriname (Neoneura dentata) and one restricted to the very south on the Sipaliwinisavanne (Neoneura sylvatica)
• Neoneura schreiberi has only been found in Northern-Brazil 

All Suriname Neoneura species do occur on rivers and creeks; no populations have been found on standing waters. Species marked with an asterisk (*) were not mentioned on the Surinamese checklist of Belle (2002)

Neoneura angelensis*
This is a rather common red species (45 individuals on 20 locations, in 10 months), with most records from the interior, less so from the savanna area. The species has been found both at creeks and rivers, and (possible as a vagrant) on a very small creek near Apura (not on map).

Neoneura bilinearis sensu Williamson, 1917
This is a rather rare, green with yellow species (28 individuals on 11 locations, in 9 months) found in the coastal area and the savanna area. During a survey at the Tibiti river and Siparikreek the species was observed exclusively on the river and not at the creek (Wasscher, 1993). Nevertheless  the species can occur in creeks, both in Surinam as in Guyana. In a small creek between Wismar and Christianburg in Guyana Williamson (1917) found the species co-occurring with Diastatops dimidiata. In Suriname this too was the case in Anjoemara kreek near Albina and the  Cottica-oever near the Barbakoeba kreek. This latter species prefers more or less brackish waters in Suriname, as might be the case for Neoneura cf. bilinearis.

Neoneura denticulata*
This is a rare red-colored species (11 individuals on 6 locations, end of June until beginning of October), of which records are exclusively from the western part of the interior. The species has been found at both rivers and creeks.

Neoneura cf. fulvicollis*
This species is rare (62 individuals on 7 locations, in 8 months), only found along the large rivers (Marowijne-, Surinam- and the Corantijn-river) within 65 km distance from the sea, only in more or less brackish water and never co-occurring with other Neoneura species.

Neoneura gaida
This is a rather rare light green species (66 individuals on 15 locations in 9 months of the year), with most records from the savanna area, less records from the interior and only one record from the coastal area (Cupid at the Maratakka). Can be common at rivers, less frequent at creeks: e.g. Siparikreek (Wasscher, 1993; table 2, then wrong identified as ‘N. joana’ ) and Wanekreek

Neoneura joana
Records of this very common pale blue species cover a quarter of all collected individuals (186 individuals on 48 locations, all months of the year). Geijskes (1954) described its exuviae found on rocks in rapids in the Marowijnerivier.  Most of the records are from rivers, very few from creeks. Most records come from the interior, less from the savanna and coastal area.

Neoneura mariana*
This red species is very rare (4 individuals on 2 locations plus a record at a bush creek on the side of French Guyana at the Lawarivier; collected in February, August and November). Always collected at (bush) creeks in the surroundings of higher foothills (Nassaugebergte and Waktibasoe creek at the Brownsberg) in the interior, so it might be confined to colder water temperatures.

Neoneura myrthea
This red species is very common, a third of all collected Neoneura specimen are of this species (236 individuals on 31 locations, in each month of the year). The species has been more often been found in the interior than from the savanna area and more at rivers then at creeks. The species can occur on a savanna creek in small numbers (for example at the Siparikreek as species Neoneura A in the central and downstream creek sections and is lacking on the Tibitirivier; Wasscher, 1993). 

Neoneura rubriventris
This rather rare red-colored species (20 individuals on 9 locations; more records from dry the season with two third of records, then the beginning and end of the large wet season with a third of the records from April and August). Almost all records are from the savanna area, with one location in the coastal area:small creek at Perica-weg at Lelydorp. Generally recorded from creeks, though not in the upper region, can be found at rivers (Tibitiriver, Wasscher, 1993, table 2 as Neoneura B) and Parariver.

Neoneura schreiberi (not known from Suriname)
This metalic green species has been collected on two localities in Brazil in 1941, not far from the border with Suriname by baas Lodewijk Schmidt. Besides the dot on the map, too on a location 175 km SSE from there.

Neoneura sylvatica*
This multicolored (blue with red) species is very rare (9 individuals on 2 locations, found in January, February and June; August in Brazil). The species was for the first time collected on 24 February 1951 at the Vier Gebroederskreek by Dirk Geijskes and is so far exclusively known of the Sipaliwini savanna, at the Brazilian border.

Neoneura n.sp.*
This red-colored species is very rare (3 individuals on 3 locations, records in March, July and November). A male was captured by Dirk Geijskes on his first trip to the interior of Suriname, on 15 July 1939 in the south at the Temoirem. At the foothills of the Tafelberg in Central Suriname two individuals were collected twenty years later. In Brazil a pair was collected by baas Lodewijk Schmidt in 1941, not far from the border with Suriname.

Literature

Belle, J. 2002. Commented checklist of the Odonata of Surinam. Odonatologica, 31:1-8.
Geijskes, D. C.,1954. Notes on Odonata of Surinam VI. The nymph of
     Neoneura joana Will.. Ent. News 65: 141-144.
Wasscher, Marcel 1993. Dragonflies of a black-water creeksystem. In:
     Freshwater Ecosystems of Suriname. (P.E. Ouboter, ed.).
     Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht/Boston/London: 157-166.
Williamson, E.B. 1917. The genus Neoneura (Odonata). Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. 43: 211–246.