Annotated checklist of the dragonflies (Insecta: Odonata) of the Kaliningrad region, North-Western Russia

Abstract

Unlike adjacent territories (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia), the Kaliningrad region have been poorly studied by far with respect to dragonflies. The first comprehensive surveys on Odonata were made more than 100 years ago, at the beginning of 20th century by La Baume (1908) and especially by Le Roi (1911) and included 50 species. In the following years, no significant publications which particularly address faunistic and taxonomic studies related to the Kaliningrad region were published. Here we present the first modern, most complete checklist of the dragonflies of the Kaliningrad region with notes on the species composition, abundance, and periods of local flight and seasonal migrations. The current checklist is based on data collected by the authors on the Courish Spit (Kaliningrad region, Russia) in 2007-2016. In total, 278 955 specimens belonging to 57 species were recorded. Additional 7 species are included in the list based on the literature data. Thus, the number of species known for the territory of the Kaliningrad region has risen to 64.