List of odonata of Kerala; Wikipedia

For the last few months, we were working on the Wikipedia list of the Dragonflies and Damselflies found in Kerala, based on the recently published “Atlas of Odonata (Insecta) of the Western Ghats, India” and “Checklist of Odonata (Insecta) of India” by the Zoological Survey of India.
Current studies show that the Western Ghats odonate fauna comprise of 193 species, representing two suborders, 14 families, 83 genera and 74 species (38.63%) endemic to the region. Out of this, we have confirmed records of 164 species in Kerala.

The odonate fauna of India is well studied by many authors including Rambur (Ins. Nevrop., 1842), Baron Edmond de Selys (Monographs on the Gomphines and Calopterygines, 1857), Friedrich Ris (Libellulince, Cat. Coll, de Selys, 1909-1916), Laidlaw F. F. (Notes on Indian Dragonflies, 1914-1921) and Fraser F. C. (Indian Dragonflies, 1918-1934). There were also a number of individual papers which have appeared in numerous journals by distinguished entomologists like Kirby, MacLachlan, Karsch, Calvert, Brauer, Hagen, Charpentier and others.

Fraser summarized all the descriptions in to three volumes, Fauna of British India- Odonata, Volume I, II & III, 1934-1936). Kimmins (1966-1970) made a list of the type-specimens of odonata in the British Museum (Natural History). Later on, diversity of odonate fauna of the Western Ghats is documented based on the field studies by scientists of Zoological Survey of India, other researchers, and citizen scientists like us.

This is an attempt to showcase our dragonflies and damselflies arranged according to the latest scientific classification, but with beautiful photographs and simple descriptions so that every layman can easily understand. Photographs of male, female, juvenile and close-ups of key parts are provided as much as available. Reference links to original literature are provided so that enthusiasts can find advanced information as per their needs.

This is a humble beginning and in a wiki where everybody can contribute without any barriers. We will continue to work on it, to improve the contents, day by day. And we are sure that the youngsters and future generation will take this passion, wholeheartedly as our colleague CG Kiran dreamed!

During the compilation, we had collaborated with a lot of likely minded people who generously shared their knowledge, resource and time. Mentioning only a few; please forgive us, as it is difficult to mention all the names here. But they are there in our hearts, always!

Dennis Paulson, Subbu Ka, Noppadon Makbun, Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra, Emily Kg, Muhamed Jafer Palot, Francy Kakkassery, Abraham Samuel, Aby P Varghese, Susanth Kumar, VC Balakrishnan, Shyamal Lakshminarayanan, David Raju, Shantanu Joshi, Parag Rangnekar, Prosenjit Dawn, Bala Chandran, Rison Thumboor, Vinayan Nair, Thomson Saburaj, Sujith V Gopalan, Muhamed Sherif, Ashish Tiple, Vijay Barve, Renjith Jacob Mathews, Amar Nayak, Gopal Krishnan, Girish Mohan PK, Pankajakshannair Manoj, Nameer PO, Kalesh Sadasivan, Arun Lal, Aaratrik Pal, Pankaj Koparde, Amila Prasanna Sumanapala, Kawsar Khan, Vineeth Vengolis, Tony Antony, Bo Nielsen, Charesh Ck, Dattaprasad Sawant, Amjith Ps, Muhammed Haneef, Maxim Rodrigues, Balakrishnan Valappil, Vinaya Raj V R, Manoj Karingamadathil, Vivek Puliyeri, Subhash Pulikkal, Brijesh Pookkottur, …