A KEY TO THE EXUVIAE OF ARABIA AND IBERIA
The combination of these two areas is not as crazy as you might think. They are both peninsulas and isolated from their surrounding continents; they both have strong influences from Africa and the east in their dragonfly faunas. If there is a link then it is the Mabreb and North Africa, which are both little studied areas. By providing a key which combines both areas then it is possible to study North Africa, Iberia and much of the Middle East using this key. Use it. See if it works and remember - if you find something THAT YOU CANNOT IDENTIFY, CONTACT THE AUTHOR. You may have something new.
If you really want to get to the bottom of the dragonfly fauna, the collection and study of exuviae is vital.
Good hunting.
The combination of these two areas is not as crazy as you might think. They are both peninsulas and isolated from their surrounding continents; they both have strong influences from Africa and the east in their dragonfly faunas. If there is a link then it is the Mabreb and North Africa, which are both little studied areas. By providing a key which combines both areas then it is possible to study North Africa, Iberia and much of the Middle East using this key. Use it. See if it works and remember - if you find something THAT YOU CANNOT IDENTIFY, CONTACT THE AUTHOR. You may have something new.
If you really want to get to the bottom of the dragonfly fauna, the collection and study of exuviae is vital.
Good hunting.
THE ARABIAN PENINSULA
The Arabian peninsula which is shown here is very poorly studied for dragonflies but thanks to funds from the Mohammed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund and the cooperation of Jacky Judas and his team at Wadi Wurayah National Park, I have been able to assemble a key to the identification of all dragonfly exuviae current known from Arabia and I have made a spirited attempt at the damselflies.
The map shown shows the distribution of one of the endemic damselflies called Arabicnemis caerulea and it was sent to me by Jean-Pierre Boudot. It serves two purposes. First to show the region that this document covers and secondly the little blue dot shows a new record for the species based upon an exuvia collected in April 2014.
The Arabian peninsula which is shown here is very poorly studied for dragonflies but thanks to funds from the Mohammed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund and the cooperation of Jacky Judas and his team at Wadi Wurayah National Park, I have been able to assemble a key to the identification of all dragonfly exuviae current known from Arabia and I have made a spirited attempt at the damselflies.
The map shown shows the distribution of one of the endemic damselflies called Arabicnemis caerulea and it was sent to me by Jean-Pierre Boudot. It serves two purposes. First to show the region that this document covers and secondly the little blue dot shows a new record for the species based upon an exuvia collected in April 2014.
THE IBERIAN PENINSULA
There is already a lot of information on this website about Iberia; it hardly warrants more. The map here shows the areas that I have worked
There is already a lot of information on this website about Iberia; it hardly warrants more. The map here shows the areas that I have worked
The key to exuviae will be be included as a number of sub pages. It will be a while in development so please be patient.