Dragonflies of France / Odonata of France

This list does not include all the dragonflies of metropolitan France; unfortunately, I have not seen them all.

Eighty-seven Odonata species are presented (88% see below), some seen outside of France, and it is difficult to state within one or two units the actual number of Odonata that are truly indigenous; global warming brings surprises every year, and the question always arises as to whether there has been, or will be, reproduction and emergence at the observation sites. One species that was extremely rare has just been considered extinct in France: Nehalennia speciosa.

Recent entries in the list of Odonata of mainland France include Trithemis kirbyi, of which I had the chance to identify one of the very first specimens in 2017; its reproduction was proven in 2020.
The same applies to Selysiothemis nigra, for which 2 exuviae were discovered in 2020.
Finally, and we were quite envious of this species present on all continents except Europe, Pantala flavescens was reported in 2019.
If we include Corsica, we can record Orthetrum trinacria since 2011 and Paragomphus genei.
All these species are present on the site.

So, what is missing from the list of species in mainland France…
– Ischnura graellsii, which I searched for in vain in the Basque Country
– Somatochlora meridionalis
I have never prospected in Corsica, which is a pity, as we could add:
– Ischnura genei
– Chalcolestes parvidens

I have never taken an interest in subspecies because it is a concept I find difficult to understand; if we take the case of Sympetrum vulgatum ibericum, we read that the validity of the subspecies has been confirmed by phylogenetic analyses; it would therefore be genetically distant enough from S. vulgatum vulgatum not to be the same species, but not distant enough to make it another species? Where is the limit? I am not a phylogeneticist, but it was thought that the case of many so-called subspecies would be settled by genetics; this is not the case, and the debate is likely to last for a very long time.

I will not speculate and instead defer to the Reference List of Odonata of Metropolitan France, which is recent, from 2021. Why does it cite Sympecma paedisca, which has not been seen for 50 years, Lindenia tetraphylla, which was only spotted once in 2009, Brachythemis impartita, which was « probably » spotted in Corsica, and Anax junius, collected in 2003 by François Meurgey at Préfailles (44), and again on 2023-10-22 on the island of Ushant? No doubt because they could be encountered again…

References

Guide des Libellules de France et d’Europe, K. -D.B. Dijksta & R. Lewington, Delachaux et Niestlé, 2007
Les Libellules de France, Belgique et Luxembourg, Daniel Grand et Jean-Pierre Boudot, Parthénope, 2006
Europe’s Dragonflies, A Field Guide to damselflies and dragonflies, Dave Smallshire & Andy Swash, British Dragonfly Society, 2020
Les Libellules, Paul-A Robert, Delachaux et Niestlé, 1956
Cahier d’identification des Libellules de France, Belgique, Luxembourg & Suisse, Daniel Grand, Jean-Pierre Boudot & Guillaume Doucet, Biotope, 2014
Atlas of the European dragonflies and damselfies, Jean-Pierre Boudot & Vincent J. Kalkman, KNNV Publishing, 2015

– Atlas dynamique des Odonates de France
– La Liste rouge des Odonates – IUCN Red List
– À propos d’étymologie, le Blog de Jean-Yves Cordier

---