Australian dragonfly (odonata) larvae: Descriptive history and identification

Abstract

To improve the reliability of identification for Australian larval Odonata, morphological and geographic information is summarised for all species. All known references that contain information on characters useful for identification of larvae are presented in an annotated checklist. For polytypic genera information is provided to clarify whether each species can already, or cannot yet, be distinguished on morphological characters, and whether and under which conditions geographic locality is sufficient to make a diagnosis. For each species the year of original description and of first description of the larva, level of confidence in current identifications, and supportive information, are included in tabular form. Habitus illustrations of generally final instar larvae or exuviae for more than 70% of the Australian dragonfly genera are presented.