The Odonata of the Northern Cordilleran Peatlands of North America

Abstract

The peatlands of the northern Cordillera of North America (consisting of the mountain ranges and intermontane lowlands and plateaus of British Columbia, Alberta, the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska) support a distinctive Odonata fauna. Forty species in six families and 12 genera are typical of northwestern peatlands and another 12 species are occasional inhabitants of these environments. Of the 40 species, eight (20%) are peatland obligates and four (10%) almost always occur in such habitats. The remaining 28 (70%) are generalists and live in a wide range of aquatic habitats; nevertheless, they often are common inhabitants of, or are even dominant in, peatland environments. The fauna is dominated by the genera Aeshna Fabricius and Somatochlora Selys, with 11 and 10 species, respectively. It is also dominated by species restricted to Boreal regions (25 species, 62.5%), six (15%) of which have Holarctic distributions. The remainder of the fauna consists of eight species (20%) ranging transcontinentally in Transition Zone forests south of the Boreal Forest, five (12.5%) restricted to the Cordillera, and two (5%) with wide distributions in North America. Notes and maps summarize our knowledge of biogeographical information and previously unpublished records are listed. Significant southerly range extensions for species such as Coenagrion interrogatum (Hagen), Aeshna septentrionalis Burmeister, A. sitchensis Hagen, A. subarctica Walker, Somatochlora septentrionalis (Hagen), and Leucorrhinia patricia Walker are reported. Ecological and natural history data are outlined for each species. There do not appear to be any clear differences between the faunas of bogs and fens; dragonflies seem to respond to the habitat's form and structure rather than to its acidity or nutrient levels. Distinctive species associations result. A better understanding of the preferences of these dragonflies for different peatland microhabitats must await detailed research on oviposition behaviour and larval ecology.

Odonata origins, biogeography, and diversification in an Eastern North American hotspot: multiple pathways to high temperate forest insect diversity

“…Surprisingly, Beringia appears not to have not played a significant role as a LGM odonate refugia; Cannings and Cannings () fingered just one species ( Somatochlora sahlbergi ) as a Beringian resident during the LGM finding instead that the boreal elements dominating the fauna were mostly recent arrivals from the southeast. This implies that the boreal assemblage might be derived from the temperate component (Belyshev & Kharitonov, ; Cannings & Cannings, ), and repeated isolation of temperate species in cryptic northern refugia during repeated glacial cycles can play an important role in generating certain boreal species over a couple of million generations (Barraclough & Vogler, ; Weir & Schluter, ; Carstens & Knowles, ). Our data support this view because there is a preponderance of NA range centres for several groups that clusters just south of the approximate latitude of the LGM in NYS (Fig.…”

The Dragonflies and Damselflies (Insecta: Odonata) of Canada: species list, geographical distribution, status, and conservation ranks

“…Macromia magnifica rickeri was designated a subspecies by Cannings et al (2006). Although identical structurally to M. m. magnifica, subspecies M. m. rickeri is a dark-coloured form endemic to southern British Columbia.…”

The State of Conservation in North America’s Boreal Forest: Issues and Opportunities

“…This includes species of chironomid flies, lepidopterans, dragonflies, and beetles (Spitzer and Danks, 2006). Species of dragonfly whose range is primarily within the biome include the Boreal Snaketail, Quebec Emerald, Hudsonian Emerald, Kennedy's Emerald, Boreal Whiteface, Lake Darner, and Zigzag Darner (Cannings and Cannings, 1994;Dunkle, 2000).…”