World Odonata List

Last revision: April 2008

pdf of World Odonata List

Martin Schorr
Waldfrieden 25, D-54314 Zerf, Germany
E-mail: foeatrier@aol.com

Martin Lindeboom
Wolfstr. 6, 72119 Ammerbuch, Germany
E-mail: lindeboom@aol.com

Dennis Paulson
Slater Museum of Natural History, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA 98416, USA
E-mail: dpaulson@ups.edu

Note: Please inform Dennis Paulson of any errors of commission or omission. Thank you.

Thanks to Pekka Alestalo, Viola Clausnitzer, Dirk Gassmann, Rasmus Hovmoller, Andreas Martens, Michael May, Arjen van het Hof, Richard Rowe, Keith Wilson, Xin Yu, and Ondrej Zicha for corrections and additions.

This is an ongoing attempt to list all of the valid species of Odonata. It is based on past compilations by the authors listed below and much additional literature research. It includes the author and year of description for all genera and species. It also includes all synonyms for New World species (from Garrison 1991) and the great majority of synonyms for African and Australian species, but the effort for Eurasia is still quite incomplete. Nevertheless, we consider the list a good starting point for estimates of biodiversity in this insect order.

We should make clear that we have not recognized any subspecies of Odonata. Instead, we have listed all named subspecies as synonyms of the species under which they were named. We are not able to judge the validity of these subspecies, and as many of them have been questioned, we chose to treat them all in the same fashion.

The list includes Zygoptera, then Anisozygoptera, then Anisoptera. Within each suborder it is in alphabetical order by family, then genus, then species. Indented names (not indented very far on some browsers) indicate (a) generic placement in the original description if different from the current generic placement, and (b) synonyms following "Syn."

You can use the Find function in your web browser to locate families, genera, and species.

General References

• Bridges, C. A. 1993. Catalogue of the family-group, genus-group and species-group names of the Odonata of the world (Second Edition). C. A. Bridges, Urbana, Illinois.
• Davies, D.A.L., & P. Tobin. 1984. The dragonflies of the world: A systematic list of the extant species of Odonata. Vol. 1. Zygoptera, Anisozygoptera. Societas Internationalis Odonatologica Rapid Comm. (Suppl.) No. 3, Utrecht.
• Davies, D.A.L., & P. Tobin. 1985. The dragonflies of the world: a systematic list of extant species of Odonata. Vol. 2. Anisoptera. Soc. Int. Odonatol. Rapid Comm. (Suppl.) No. 5., Utrecht.
• Garrison, R. W. 1991. A synonymic list of the New World Odonata. Argia 3(2): 1-30.
• Tsuda, S. 1991. A distributional list of World Odonata. Published by author, Osaka.

Families Listed

Zygoptera
Amphipterygidae
Calopterygidae
Chorismagrionidae
Chlorocyphidae
Coenagrionidae
Dicteriadidae
Diphlebiidae
Euphaeidae
Hemiphlebiidae
Isostictidae
Lestidae
Lestoideidae
Megapodagrionidae
Perilestidae
Platycnemididae
Platystictidae
Polythoridae
Protoneuridae
Pseudostigmatidae
Synlestidae
Thaumatoneuridae

Anisozygoptera
Epiophlebiidae

Anisoptera
Aeshnidae
Austropetaliidae
Chlorogomphidae
Cordulegastridae
Corduliidae
Gomphidae
Libellulidae

Macromiidae
Neopetaliidae
Petaluridae
Synthemistidae