Main aim of these pages is to compose a list of dragonfly species which occur on the Guiana Shield. I am most grateful to Dennis Paulson and Jürg DeMarmels for helping me to create this list.  

With this list it is more easy to check which species are likely to occur in this part of the the five countries and its possible to make regional identification keys. Secondly it is a way of survey areas in need of protection or in need of study; as DeMarmels (1999) did for Venezuela and Paulson (2004) did for the Neotropics. As we know more about the possible endemics in the countries (which numbers are given in Paulson, 2004) we can more easily track them in other countries. 

The Guiana Shield is defined as the three Guiana's the eastern part of Venezuela, the northern part of Brazil (while Columbia east of the Andes could be included but is not in this study). The most species rich site on the Guiana is the Cerro de la Neblina (00°49'50"N, 66°09'40"W) in the very south of Venezuela, next to the Brazilian border. Here, during a few months of 1984, 152 species were collected in an area of approximately 625 km² (De Marmels, 1989).

The list which follows is primarily based on the list published by Dennis Paulson (2005) South American Odonata List of the Odonata of South America, By Country. See legend for further notes.

Literature

BELLE, J., 2002. Commented checklist of the Odonata of Suriname. Odonatologica 31(1): 1-8. 

DE MARMELS, J. 1990. An updated checklist of Odonata of Venezuela. Odonatologica 19: 333-345.

DEMARMELS, J., 1999, Rare Venezuelan dragonflies (Odonata) evaluated for their possible inclusion in the National Red Data Book, Pantala, International J. Odonatology, 2(1):55-67

MACHET, P., 2004. Liste actualisée des Odonates de la Guyane française. Martinia 20 (3) : 145-149.

PAULSON, D.R., 2004. In: Clausnitzer, V. & R. Jödicke (red.), 2004. Guardians of the watershed. Global status of dragonflies: critical species, threat and conservation. Int. Journal of Odonatology 7(2): 1-429.

PAULSON, D.R. & N. VON ELLENRIEDER. 2005. The synonymy of Subaeschna Martin, 1909 with Gynacantha Rambur, 1842, and a new species of Gynacantha from Peru (Anisoptera, Aeshnidae). Odonatologica 34(1): 65-72.