Dragonflies and damselflies from the West of Minas Gerais, Brazil: checklist and new records

Abstract

The knowledge about the richness and distribution of Brazilian dragonflies is still being unveiled. Over the years, inventories, reviews, and descriptions have been made. These contributions, apart from the taxonomic value, also provide valuable data on the occurrence of species and their distributions, which are rarely accompanied by notes about natural history and behavior. Keeping this legacy in mind, we collected dragonflies between 2011 and 2019 in Minas Gerais state, which resulted in the registration of 90 species, 41 genera and 11 families. Our results also increase distribution data, an important tool for conservation actions, and provide additional information about habitat and biology of species.

Distribution and composition of Dragonfly and Damselfly species (Odonata) of the upper Rio das Velhas, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais State, Brazil

“…Compared to other studies conducted in the Minas Gerais, the present survey has a significant number of recorded species (Table 3). The number found in this study (40 species) is within the confidence interval of the mean (Mean = 56.55;CI [36.17,76.92]) of the longer periods sampled (Bedê et al, 2015;Vilela et al, 2020a). However, the number of species found here was lower than the average of other studies and may be reflect the climatic conditions at Ouro Preto mountain region.…”

“…The higher number of species of Coenagrionidae and Libellulidae sampled here reflects their dominance in Brazil and other regions of the world (e.g., Dijkstra & Clausnitzer, 2006;Bedê et al, 2015;Souza et al, 2017;Vilela et al, 2020a). Dijkstra & Clausnitzer (2006) stated that these two families are numerically dominant because they are evolutionary and adapted better to unstable habitats than other families of Odonata, however, other factors may influence the sampling of other families, such as: difficulty in capturing due to the high capacity for vagility, habits that are still unknown as noted in Souza et al (2017).…”

“…They are also voracious predators, both in the adult and larval stages, and thus potentially important in insect pest control (Samways & Steytler, 1996). There are currently about of 900 species of Odonata known for Brazil (Pinto, 2020) being 269 of them registered for the state of Minas Gerais (Vilela et al, 2020a).…”

Dragonflies and Damselflies in a region of the Triângulo Mineiro, Minas Gerais: checklist and taxonomic additions

“…Many odonate species are known to be endangered with the overexploitation in many regions of the country (ICMBio 2018, Araújo et al 2020). This situation has encouraged great effort in preservation measures in the last years, including inventories in priority regions (e.g., Cerrado) and species conservation categorizations (De Marco & Viana 2005, Koroiva et al 2017, Dalzochio et al 2018a, Bastos et al 2019, Garcia Junior et al 2021, Koroiva et al 2020, Vilela et al 2020a. Despite this progress, distribution and taxonomic gaps are still frequently reported problems in the literature, even in explored regions.…”

“…Despite this progress, distribution and taxonomic gaps are still frequently reported problems in the literature, even in explored regions. For example, more than one third of odonate fauna from Serra da Bodoquena and some regions of southeast and west of Minas Gerais could not be classified in an IUCN red list category due to data deficiency (Koroiva et al 2017, Ávila Júnior et al 2020, Vilela et al 2020a).…”