Abstract

In this study, we provide a checklist of the species of Odonata (Insecta) from the state of Santa Catarina (southern Brazil), along with their location records in the municipalities across the state (whenever possible). We compiled 147 species from 60 genera and nine families, making Santa Catarina the second state with the most Odonata species recorded in southern Brazil. The families with the highest number of species were Libellulidae (54 species from 18 genera), followed by Coenagrionidae (36 species from 17 genera), Gomphidae (20 species from ten genera) and Aeshnidae (15 species from eight genera). Several regions of Santa Catarina are unexplored (mostly the westernmost and central regions of the state), whereas the knowledge in the southern coast and the subtropical highland grasslands remains restricted to sparse occurrence records. Moreover, the distribution records in the state show an enormous historical track associated with the establishment of late entomologists in the region. Our study highlights the role of Atlantic Forest biome in maintaining high levels of diversity of Odonata species richness in Brazil and also shows that many areas in subtropical forests in Brazil are not adequately sampled.

Keywords
Anisoptera; aquatic insects; Atlantic Forest; Inventory; Zygoptera

Resumo

Neste estudo, fornecemos um checklist das espécies de Odonata (Insecta) do estado de Santa Catarina (sul do Brasil), juntamente com seus registros de localização nos municípios do estado (quando disponíveis na literatura). Compilamos 147 espécies distribuídas em 60 gêneros e nove famílias, tornando Santa Catarina o segundo estado com mais espécies de Odonata registradas na região Sul do Brasil. As famílias com maior número de espécies foram Libellulidae (54 espécies distribuídas em 18 gêneros), seguida por Coenagrionidae (36 espécies distribuídas em 17 gêneros), Gomphidae (20 espécies distribuídas em dez gêneros) e Aeshnidae (15 espécies distribuídas em oito gêneros). Diversas regiões de Santa Catarina seguem inexploradas (principalmente as regiões centrais e do extremo oeste do estado), enquanto conhecimento no litoral sul e campos de altitude subtropicais permanecem restritos a registros pontuais de ocorrência. Além disso, os registros de distribuição no estado mostram um enorme legado histórico associado à fixação de entomologistas tradicionalmente lotados na região. Nosso estudo destaca o papel do bioma Mata Atlântica na manutenção de altos níveis de diversidade da riqueza de espécies de Odonata no Brasil e também mostra que muitas áreas de florestas subtropicais no Brasil não são amostradas adequadamente.

Palavras-chave
Anisoptera; Insetos aquáticos; Inventário; Mata Atlântica; Zygoptera

Introduction

Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) constitute a medium order of insects whose adults show terrestrial habits, whereas the large majority of their larval stages have aquatic habit. Odonata play important roles in freshwater ecosystems (May 2019). Given their generalist predatory habit in both larval and adult stages, they are key to the regulation of pest populations and mediation of community-level processes such as trophic cascades (Arnaud et al. 2022ARNAUD, S., KARI, K., LENIN, C., ANDRÉ, M., OLGA, P., JUSTIN, P., DAVID, B., NEDIM, T. & ROBBY, S. 2022. Odonata trophic ecology. In Dragonflies and Damselflies (A. Córdoba-Aguilar, C.D. Beatty, & J.T. Bried, eds) Oxford University PressOxford, Boston, MA, USA, p.219–232.). To date, more than 6400 species of Odonata are recorded globally (Paulson et al. 2024PAULSON, D., SCHORR, M., ABBOTT, J., BOTA-SIERRA, C., DELIRY, C., DIJKSTRA, K.D.B. & LOZANO, F. 2024. World Odonata List. OdonataCentral, Univ. Alabama.), and the majority of the species is found in the Neotropics (Kalkman et al. 2008KALKMAN, V.J., CLAUSNITZER, V., DIJKSTRA, K.D.B., ORR, A.G., PAULSON, D.R. & VAN TOL, J. 2008. Global diversity of dragonflies (Odonata) in freshwater. Hydrobiologia 595(1):351–363.). In Brazil, the largest country in South America, more than 900 species of Odonata are recorded (Pinto 2024aPINTO, Â.P. 2024a. Odonata Fabricius, 1793. In Insetos do Brasil: Diversidade e Taxonomia (J. A. Rafael, G. A. R. Melo, C. J. B. de Carvalho, S. Casari, & R. Constantino, eds) Editora INPA, Manaus, p.187–233.). However, the knowledge about the Odonata diversity is highly heterogeneous throughout the country (De Marco & Vianna 2005DE MARCO, P. & VIANNA, D.M. 2005. Distribuição do esforço de coleta de Odonata no Brasil - Subsídios para escolha de áreas prioritárias para levantamentos faunísticos. Lundiana 6(SUPPL.):13–26.). Despite the increase of species descriptions and regional checklists (Costa et al. 2000COSTA, J.M., MACHADO, A.B.M., LENCIONI, F.A.A. & SANTOS, T.C. 2000. Diversidade e distribuição dos odonata (Insecta) no Estado de São Paulo, Brasil: Parte 1 - Lista das espécies e registros bibliográficos. Publ. Avul. Mus. Nac. 80(1):1–27., Rodrigues & Roque 2017RODRIGUES, M.E. & ROQUE, F. de O. 2017. Checklist de Odonata do Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Iheringia. Série Zool. 107(suppl):1–4., Costa & Oldrini 2005COSTA, J.M. & OLDRINI, B.B. 2005. Diversidade e distribuição dos Odonata (Insecta) no estado do Espírito Santo, Brasil. Publicações Avulsas do Mus. Nac. 1071–15., Koroiva et al. 2021KOROIVA, R., PEREIRA-COLAVITE, A., BATISTA, F.R. da C. & VILELA, D.S. 2021. Checklist and contribution to the knowledge of the odonatofauna of Paraíba state, Brazil. Biota Neotrop. 21(3):e20211196., 2020KOROIVA, R., NEISS, U.G., FLECK, G. & HAMADA, N. 2020. Checklist of dragonflies and damselflies (Insecta: Odonata) of the Amazonas State, Brazil. Biota Neotrop. 20(1):1–18.), the knowledge about the species occurrence and distribution is still unevenly distributed in Brazil, preventing accurate assessment of diversity as well as conservation policies (Cardoso et al. 2011CARDOSO, P., ERWIN, T.L., BORGES, P.A.V. & NEW, T.R. 2011. The seven impediments in invertebrate conservation and how to overcome them. Biol. Conserv. 144(11):2647–2655.).

In particular, the Southern region of Brazil (states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina) remains as one of the least studied in the country (Miguel et al. 2017MIGUEL, T.B., CALVÃO, L.B., VITAL, M.V.C. & JUEN, L. 2017. A scientometric study of the order Odonata with special attention to Brazil. Int. J. Odonatol. 20(1):27–42.), and the only state checklist of Odonata in the region is available for the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Dalzochio et al. 2018DALZOCHIO, M.S., RENNER, S., SGANZERLA, C., PRASS, G., ELY, G.J., SALVI, L.C., DAMETTO, N. & PÉRICO, E. 2018. Checklist of Odonata (Insecta) in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil with seven new records. Biota Neotrop. 18(4):e20180551.). The state of Santa Catarina is located in the Southern region of Brazil (Figure 1) has an area of 95,730.690 km², occupying 1.12% of the Brazilian territory and the 19th position of territorial extension of Brazilian states; by 2022, the state population reached over 7.5 Mi people, currently among the ten states with highest population density in the country (IBGE 2022IBGE - INSTITUTO BRASILIERO DE GEOGRAFIA E ESTATÍSTICA. 2022. Cidades e Estados.). The original vegetation type in the state is entirely situated within the range of the Atlantic Forest biome (IBGE 2019IBGE - INSTITUTO BRASILIERO DE GEOGRAFIA E ESTATÍSTICA. 2019. Biomas e sistema costeiro-carinho do Brasil: compatível com a escala 1:250. 000. Editora do IBGE, Rio de Janeiro.), a biome long considered a hotspot of biodiversity and as a priority for conservation (Brooks et al. 2006BROOKS, T.M., MITTERMEIER, R.A., DA FONSECA, G.A.B., GERLACH, J., HOFFMANN, M., LAMOREUX, J.F., MITTERMEIER, C.G., PILGRIM, J.D. & RODRIGUES, A.S.L. 2006. Global Biodiversity Conservation Priorities. Science (80-.). 313(5783):58–61.). Although Santa Catarina is the smallest state in the region, native forests cover 64% of the state territory, making SC the state with largest area of native vegetation in the Southern region of Brazil; nevertheless, trends of continuous loss of native vegetation are reported for the state over the 21^st century (Projeto MapBiomas 2023PROJETO MAPBIOMAS. 2023. Coleção 8 da Série Anual de Mapas de Uso e Cobertura da Terra do Brasil.).

Figure 1.
Municipalities in the state of Santa Catarina with known records of Odonata species. For code numbers, see Table S2.

With regards to the knowledge on the diversity of Odonata in Santa Catarina, the large majority of the studies focusing odonates in the state over the last 120 years encompass descriptions of new species, while the few ecological studies focused on larval stages of the order (Pires et al. 2020PIRES, M.M., SIEGLOCH, A.E., HERNÁNDEZ, M.I.M. & PETRUCIO, M.M. 2020. Environmental drivers and composition of assemblages of immature odonates (Insecta) in a subtropical island in southern Brazil. Acta Limnol. Bras. 32e2., Siegloch et al. 2018SIEGLOCH, A.E., DA SILVA, A.L.L., DA SILVA, P.G. & HERNÁNDEZ, M.I.M. 2018. Local and regional effects structuring aquatic insect assemblages at multiple spatial scales in a Mainland-Island region of the Atlantic Forest. Hydrobiologia 805(1):61–73., Turra et al. 2018TURRA, B.L., RAIMUNDI, E.A. & SOUZA-FRANCO, G.M. de. 2018. Influência de variáveis ambientais em ambientes lóticos de mata de araucária sobre a taxocenose odonata. Rev. Ibero-Americana Ciências Ambient. 9(3):289–305.), preventing species-level assessments. In fact, as most of the available information on the known diversity of Odonata in SC is fragmentary and dispersed across taxonomic keys without reference to their known locations across the municipalities of the state (Lencioni 2005LENCIONI, F.A.A. 2005. Damselflies of Brazil: An Illustrated Identification Guide – Non-Coenagrionidae Families. All Print, São Paulo., 2006LENCIONI, F.A.A. 2006. The Damselflies of Brazil: An Illustrated Identification Guide 2 - Coenagrionidae. All Print, São Paulo, Brazil., Heckman 2006HECKMAN, C.W. 2006. Encyclopedia of South American Aquatic Insects: Odonata – Anisoptera. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht., 2008HECKMAN, C.W. 2008. Encyclopedia of South American Aquatic Insects: Odonata - Zygoptera. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht.), or taxon-specific synopsis (Table S1). Considering such knowledge gap, the main goal of this study is to provide a preliminary checklist of the species of Odonata recorded for the state of Santa Catarina through searches in the bibliography.

Material and Methods

Study area

The state of Santa Catarina (SC; geographical coordinates: 25° 57’ 41” – 29° 23’ 55” S; 48° 19’ 37” – 53° 50’ 00” W), is bordered by the states of Rio Grande do Sul (south) and Paraná (north), and by the Province of Misiones (Argentina) to the west. The major relief units in SC include the lowlands in the coastal plain, the eastern (altitudes up to 400 m) and the western plateaus (mean altitudes ranging between 400–800 m covering fluvial depressions and plateaus, but also highland grassland plateaus located at altitudes >1,200 m) (Rocha 2016ROCHA, I. de O. 2016. Atlas Geográfico de Santa Catarina. Diversidade da natureza – Fascículo 2. 2.ed ed. Editora da UDESC, Florianópolis.).

Across the state, annual precipitation ranges between 1,400–2,200 mm (Wrege et al. 2012WREGE, M.S., STEINMETZ, S., REISSER JÚNIOR, C., ALMEIDA, I.R. de & EMPRESA BRASILEIRA DE PESQUISA AGROPECUÁRIA. 2012. Atlas climático da Região Sul do Brasil : sstados do Paraná, Santa Catarina e Rio Grande do Sul. Second ed. Embrapa Clima Temperado, Pelotas.). According to the Köppen classification system, the climate types in the state range from Cfa (humid subtropical with hot summers) in the coastal and plateaus areas (annual average temperatures ranging between 15–20 °C), while in the highland grassland plateaus, climate type is Cfb (humid subtropical with cool summers), with annual average temperature ranging between 12–15 °C (Alvares et al. 2013ALVARES, C.A., STAPE, J.L., SENTELHAS, P.C., DE MORAES GONÇALVES, J.L. & SPAROVEK, G. 2013. Köppen’s climate classification map for Brazil. Meteorol. Zeitschrift 22(6):711–728.). Native vegetation typed in the state include Seasonal and Evergreen forests in the central and western regions, restinga in the Atlantic coast (Leão et al. 2014LEÃO, T.C.C., FONSECA, C.R., PERES, C.A. & TABARELLI, M. 2014. Predicting extinction risk of Brazilian Atlantic Forest angiosperms. Conserv. Biol. 28(5):1349–1359.) and subtropical grasslands in the highland plateaus (Overbeck et al. 2024OVERBECK, G.E., PILLAR, V.D.P., MÜLLER, S.C. & BENCKE, G.A. 2024. South Brazilian Grasslands: Ecology and Conservation of the Campos Sulinos. 1 ed. Springer International Publishing, Cham.).

Data sources and elaboration of the list

To prepare the checklist, we compiled occurrence records of odonate species from a total number of 107 data sources. These data sources derived from a combination of procedures that included: screening of published and grey literature (items I and II); and consultation to databases of odonate species records (items III-V).

For literature screening, we assembled a list of (I) 101 publications (scientific articles, books and book sections) published between 1905 and 2023, after revising the reference list available in published catalogs of odonate species from Brazil (De Marco & Vianna 2005DE MARCO, P. & VIANNA, D.M. 2005. Distribuição do esforço de coleta de Odonata no Brasil - Subsídios para escolha de áreas prioritárias para levantamentos faunísticos. Lundiana 6(SUPPL.):13–26.) and Neotropical region (Santos 1988SANTOS, N.D. dos. 1988. Catálogo bibliográfico de ninfas de Odonatos Neotropicais. (Acompanhado de relação alfabética de autores e seus trabalhos). Acta Amaz. 18(1–2):265–350.) and regional checklists of odonate species for Brazilian states recently published in the journal (Dalzochio et al. 2018DALZOCHIO, M.S., RENNER, S., SGANZERLA, C., PRASS, G., ELY, G.J., SALVI, L.C., DAMETTO, N. & PÉRICO, E. 2018. Checklist of Odonata (Insecta) in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil with seven new records. Biota Neotrop. 18(4):e20180551., Koroiva et al. 2021KOROIVA, R., PEREIRA-COLAVITE, A., BATISTA, F.R. da C. & VILELA, D.S. 2021. Checklist and contribution to the knowledge of the odonatofauna of Paraíba state, Brazil. Biota Neotrop. 21(3):e20211196., 2020KOROIVA, R., NEISS, U.G., FLECK, G. & HAMADA, N. 2020. Checklist of dragonflies and damselflies (Insecta: Odonata) of the Amazonas State, Brazil. Biota Neotrop. 20(1):1–18.). (II) We also searched for records in doctoral thesis and master dissertations specifically targeted on systematic and taxonomy of Neotropical odonate taxa; in each bibliographic source, we investigated the location of species records to cross-examine the occurrence of each species for the state.

Furthermore, we consulted the following online public and personal databases, as follows: (III) The Brazilian Fauna Taxonomic Catalog (“Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil”; http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br) (Pinto 2024aPINTO, Â.P. 2024a. Odonata Fabricius, 1793. In Insetos do Brasil: Diversidade e Taxonomia (J. A. Rafael, G. A. R. Melo, C. J. B. de Carvalho, S. Casari, & R. Constantino, eds) Editora INPA, Manaus, p.187–233.); (IV) range distribution maps available at IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) (IUCN 2023IUCN. 2023. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.); and (V) personally updated versions of previously published databases (De Marco & Vianna 2005DE MARCO, P. & VIANNA, D.M. 2005. Distribuição do esforço de coleta de Odonata no Brasil - Subsídios para escolha de áreas prioritárias para levantamentos faunísticos. Lundiana 6(SUPPL.):13–26., Ellenrieder 2011ELLENRIEDER, N. von. 2011. Databasing dragonflies: State of knowledge in the Neotropical region. Agrion 13(1):1476–2552.) provided with the help of researchers and collaborators (see Acknowledgments) (Table S1).

We also gathered information about the municipalities where the species were collected, whenever available in the bibliographic records (Table S2; Figure 1). For the systematic classification, we followed the list all of the valid species of Odonata available in the World Odonata list website (Paulson et al. 2024PAULSON, D., SCHORR, M., ABBOTT, J., BOTA-SIERRA, C., DELIRY, C., DIJKSTRA, K.D.B. & LOZANO, F. 2024. World Odonata List. OdonataCentral, Univ. Alabama.).

We double-checked species records according to recent synopsis and reviews (Ellenrieder & Garrison 2003ELLENRIEDER, N. von & GARRISON, R.W. 2003. A synopsis of the genus Triacanthagyna (Odonata: Aeshnidae). Int. J. Odonatol. 6(2):147–184., Vilela et al. 2023VILELA, D.S. 2023. Libélulas de Minas Gerais., Lencioni 2022LENCIONI, F.A.A. 2022. Analysis of male Leptagrion Selys, 1876 sensu lato (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) with description of four new genera and a new species. Zootaxa 5105(1):63–104.) and species synonymies for specific genera, as follows: for the genus Navicordulia Machado & Costa, 1995 (Corduliidae), N. mielkei and N. miersi are considered synonymies of N. atlantica Machado & Costa, 1995 (Pinto et al. 2022PINTO, Â.P., ALMEIDA, M.V.O. De & EHLERT, J. 2022. Three names, one species: junior synonyms for the Atlantic Forest emerald dragonfly Navicordulia atlantica (Odonata: Corduliidae s.s.). Rev. Bras. Entomol. 66(3):e20220052.). For the genus Perithemis Hagen, 1861 (Libellulidae), we followed the synonymy proposed by Paulson (2020)PAULSON, D. 2020. Perithemis mooma Kirby, 1889, is a synonym of P. tenera (Say, 1840). Bull. Am. Odonatol. 13(1):1–5., which considers records of P. mooma Kirby, 1889 as P.tenera (Say, 1840). For the genus Tramea Hagen, 1861 (Libellulidae), T.calverti Muttkowski, 1910 is synonymized with T. darwini Kirby, 1889 (Lorenzo-Carballa et al. 2020LORENZO-CARBALLA, M., GARRISON, R., ENCALADA, A. & CORDERO-RIVERA, A. 2020. Darwin Returns to the Galapagos: Genetic and Morphological Analyses Confirm the Presence of Tramea darwini at the Archipelago (Odonata, Libellulidae). Insects 12(1):21.). As for the genus Orthemis Hagen, 1861 (Libellulidae), we considered previous records of O. ferruginea (Fabricius, 1775) as O. discolor (Burmeister, 1839), as revised by recent cytogenetic studies (Mola et al. 2021MOLA, L.M., FOURASTIÉ, M.F. & AGOPIAN, S.S. 2021. High karyotypic variation in Orthemis Hagen, 1861 species, with insights about the neo-XY in Orthemis ambinigra Calvert, 1909 (Libellulidae, Odonata). Comp. Cytogenet. 15(4):355–374.) that attempt to solve the problematic status of species within this genus.

Results and Discussion

Species list

The total number of Odonata species recorded for the state of Santa Catarina is 147 (distributed in 60 genera and nine families; Table 1). The families with the highest number of species were Libellulidae (54 species from 18 genera) and Coenagrionidae (36 species from 17 genera), followed by Gomphidae (20 species from ten genera) and Aeshnidae (15 species from eight genera). The remaining families (Calopterygidae, Lestidae and Corduliidae) were represented by two genera each and nine, eight and four species, respectively; Heteragrionidae and Megapodagrionidae were represented by a single genus and two species each (Table 1). The species with the highest number of records in the state were Rhionaeschna planaltica (Calvert, 1952) and R. punctata (Martin, 1908) (Aeshnidae), Erythrodiplax media Borror, 1942, Tramea cophysa Hagen, 1867 (Libellulidae), Mnesarete borchgravii (Selys, 1869) (Calopterygidae), Mecistogaster amalia (Burmeister, 1839) and Peristicta aeneoviridis Calvert, 1909) (Coenagrionidae), recorded in four locations (Table 1).

Some species cited by Heckman (2006)HECKMAN, C.W. 2006. Encyclopedia of South American Aquatic Insects: Odonata – Anisoptera. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht. were only known for other regions of South America or Brazil and were not added to the final checklist to avoid mistakes. In specific, Erythrodiplax connata (Burmeister, 1839) (Libellulidae) is thought to be confined Patagonia (western Argentina and Chile) (Paulson 2003PAULSON, D. 2003. Comments on the Erythrodiplax connata (Burmeister, 1839) group, with the elevation of E. fusca (Rambur, 1842), E. minuscula (Rambur, 1842), and E. basifusca (Calvert, 1895) to full species (Anisoptera: Libellulidae). Bull. Am. Odonatol. 6(4):101–110.), and records outside these countries are questionable (Lozano & Muzón 2020LORENZO-CARBALLA, M., GARRISON, R., ENCALADA, A. & CORDERO-RIVERA, A. 2020. Darwin Returns to the Galapagos: Genetic and Morphological Analyses Confirm the Presence of Tramea darwini at the Archipelago (Odonata, Libellulidae). Insects 12(1):21.); Micrathyria pseudhypodidymaCosta, Lourenço & Viera, 2002COSTA, J.M., LOURENÇO, A.N. & VIEIRA, L.P. 2002. Micrathyria pseudhypodidyma sp. n. (Odonata: Libellulidae), com Chave das Espécies do Gênero que Ocorrem no Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Neotrop. Entomol. 31(3):377–389. (Libellulidae) is known to central and southeastern Brazil (states of Goiás and Rio de Janeiro, and Distrito Federal) (Costa et al. 2002COSTA, J.M., LOURENÇO, A.N. & VIEIRA, L.P. 2002. Micrathyria pseudhypodidyma sp. n. (Odonata: Libellulidae), com Chave das Espécies do Gênero que Ocorrem no Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Neotrop. Entomol. 31(3):377–389.), and is reported as vulnerable species in those regions (Ellenrieder 2009ELLENRIEDER, N. von. 2009. Micrathyria pseudhypodidyma. IUCN Red List Threat. Species 2009 e.T159112A5315873.); Zonophora campanulata (Burmeister, 1839) (Gomphidae) encompasses a group of subspecies with allopatric distribution in central and southeastern Brazil (as stated in the original review and further studies on Brazilian Gomphidae), while only records of the sister clade (Z. diversaBelle, 1983BELLE, J. 1983. A review of the genus Zonophora Selys (Odonata, Gomphidae). Tijdschr. voor Entomol. 126145–173.) are valid to the state so far (Belle 1983BELLE, J. 1983. A review of the genus Zonophora Selys (Odonata, Gomphidae). Tijdschr. voor Entomol. 126145–173., Almeida et al. 2013ALMEIDA, M.V.O. de, PINTO, Â.P., CARVALHO, A. do L. & TAKIYA, D.M. 2013. When rare is just a matter of sampling: unexpected dominance of clubtail dragonflies (Odonata, Gomphidae) through different collecting methods at Parque Nacional da Serra do Cipó, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Rev. Bras. Entomol. 57(4):417–423.). Checklists for states in the Brazilian Amazon and regional inventories in central Brazil mention the occurrence of Aphylla distinguenda (Campion, 1920) (Gomphidae) and Perithemis cornelia (Say, 1840) (Libellulidae) in SC (Miranda Filho et al. 2022MIRANDA FILHO, J. da C., PENAGOS, C.C.M., CALVÃO, L.B., MIGUEL, T.B., BASTOS, R.C., FERREIRA, V.R.S., LIMA, D.V.M., VIEIRA, L.J.S., BRASIL, L.S. & JUEN, L. 2022. Checklist of Damselflies and Dragonflies (Odonata) from Acre state, and the first record of Drepanoneura loutoni von Ellenrieder & Garrison, 2008 for Brazil. Biota Neotrop. e20211320., Barbosa et al. 2019BARBOSA, M.S., BORGES, L.R., DIOGO, D.S., VENÂNCIO, H. & SANTOS, J.C. 2019. Odonate Communities of the Sucupira Reservoir, Rio Uberabinha, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Pap. Avulsos Zool. 59e20195922.). Both species are known to central and northern Brazil and their corresponding sources do not mention their occurrence in Santa Catarina, most likely constituting erroneous records. Heteragrion beschkii Hagen in Selys, 1862 (Heteragrionidae) is cited as occurring in Santa Catarina based on personal records (Vilela & Guillermo-Ferreira 2021VILELA, D.S. & GUILLERMO-FERREIRA, R. 2021. Heteragrion beschkii. he IUCN Red List Threat. Species e.T125302037A125329078.). However, recent synopsis on the genus do not confirm the occurrence of H. beschkii in SC (Vilela et al. 2023VILELA, D.S., LENCIONI, F.A.A., BOTA-SIERRA, C.A., WARE, J.L. & BISPO, P.C. 2023. Taxonomic revision of the Neotropical genus Heteragrion Selys, 1862 (Zygoptera: Heteragrionidae): male morphology, new species and illustrated key. Zootaxa 5356(1):1–96.), and this species was thus not added to the final checklist.

Discussion

The 147 species listed for the state of Santa Catarina represent 16% of the known species of Odonata in Brazil (918 spp. (Pinto 2024aPINTO, Â.P. 2024a. Odonata Fabricius, 1793. In Insetos do Brasil: Diversidade e Taxonomia (J. A. Rafael, G. A. R. Melo, C. J. B. de Carvalho, S. Casari, & R. Constantino, eds) Editora INPA, Manaus, p.187–233.)). With the results presented in this study, the diversity of Odonata recorded for state of Santa Catarina is the second in number of species in the Southern region of Brazil, behind Rio Grande do Sul (184 species) (Dalzochio et al. 2018DALZOCHIO, M.S., RENNER, S., SGANZERLA, C., PRASS, G., ELY, G.J., SALVI, L.C., DAMETTO, N. & PÉRICO, E. 2018. Checklist of Odonata (Insecta) in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil with seven new records. Biota Neotrop. 18(4):e20180551., Pires et al. 2019PIRES, M.M., KOTZIAN, C.B., SGANZERLA, C., PRASS, G., DALZOCHIO, M.S. & PÉRICO, E. 2019. Diversity of Odonata (Insecta) in Seasonal Deciduous Forest fragments in southern Brazil (state of Rio Grande do Sul), with a new record for the state and comments on the seasonal distribution of the species. Biota Neotrop. 19(4):e20190769., Muzón & Lozano 2020MUZÓN, J. & LOZANO, F. 2020. Negragrion sagma gen.n. and sp.n. from South America with a morphological phylogeny of the New World Ischnurinae (Odonata: Zygoptera: Coenagrionidae). An. Acad. Bras. Cienc. 92(suppl 2): e20190025.), although no checklist for the state of Paraná has been published to date.

The total number of species recorded for the state of Santa Catarina is also lower than the diversity recorded for other states of the country, such as Minas Gerais (344 spp.) (Vilela 2023VILELA, D.S. 2023. Libélulas de Minas Gerais.), São Paulo, 251 spp. (Costa et al. 2000COSTA, J.M., MACHADO, A.B.M., LENCIONI, F.A.A. & SANTOS, T.C. 2000. Diversidade e distribuição dos odonata (Insecta) no Estado de São Paulo, Brasil: Parte 1 - Lista das espécies e registros bibliográficos. Publ. Avul. Mus. Nac. 80(1):1–27.), Mato Grosso do Sul, 198 spp. (Rodrigues & Roque 2017RODRIGUES, M.E. & ROQUE, F. de O. 2017. Checklist de Odonata do Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Iheringia. Série Zool. 107(suppl):1–4.), Amazonas, 335 spp. (Koroiva et al. 2020KOROIVA, R., NEISS, U.G., FLECK, G. & HAMADA, N. 2020. Checklist of dragonflies and damselflies (Insecta: Odonata) of the Amazonas State, Brazil. Biota Neotrop. 20(1):1–18.). However, this result conveys rather important information both under zoogeographical and conservation perspectives which should be taken into consideration. The observed diversity of Odonata in SC corresponds to 80% of the number of species recorded for the neighboring state of Rio Grande do Sul (Dalzochio et al. 2018DALZOCHIO, M.S., RENNER, S., SGANZERLA, C., PRASS, G., ELY, G.J., SALVI, L.C., DAMETTO, N. & PÉRICO, E. 2018. Checklist of Odonata (Insecta) in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil with seven new records. Biota Neotrop. 18(4):e20180551., Pires et al. 2019PIRES, M.M., KOTZIAN, C.B., SGANZERLA, C., PRASS, G., DALZOCHIO, M.S. & PÉRICO, E. 2019. Diversity of Odonata (Insecta) in Seasonal Deciduous Forest fragments in southern Brazil (state of Rio Grande do Sul), with a new record for the state and comments on the seasonal distribution of the species. Biota Neotrop. 19(4):e20190769., Muzón & Lozano 2020MUZÓN, J. & LOZANO, F. 2020. Negragrion sagma gen.n. and sp.n. from South America with a morphological phylogeny of the New World Ischnurinae (Odonata: Zygoptera: Coenagrionidae). An. Acad. Bras. Cienc. 92(suppl 2): e20190025.), despite the area of SC being less than half of the latter (IBGE 2022IBGE - INSTITUTO BRASILIERO DE GEOGRAFIA E ESTATÍSTICA. 2022. Cidades e Estados.). In fact, the number of odonate species recorded in SC is similar to the state of Espírito Santo (a subtropical state of similar area entirely situated within the Atlantic Forest; 180 species (Costa & Oldrini 2005COSTA, J.M. & OLDRINI, B.B. 2005. Diversidade e distribuição dos Odonata (Insecta) no estado do Espírito Santo, Brasil. Publicações Avulsas do Mus. Nac. 1071–15.). Considering the small area of the state of, our study highlights the prominent role of Atlantic Forest biome in maintaining high levels of diversity of Odonata species richness in Brazil and the Neotropics (Paulson 2006PAULSON, D. 2006. The importance of forests to Neotropical dragonflies. In Fourth WDA International Symposium of Odonatology (A. Cordero-Rivera, ed.) Pensoft, Pontevedra, p.79–101.).

More than 50% of the species recorded in SC fall under the ‘LC category’ of conservation by IUCN (i.e., species with widespread distribution). This is likely because more than 80% of the species recorded in SC are shared with preserved areas of the state of Paraná (Araujo & Pinto 2021ARAUJO, B.R. & PINTO, Â.P. 2021. Dragonflies (Insecta: Odonata) from Mananciais da Serra, a Tropical-Araucaria Forest ecotonal remnant in the southern Atlantic Forest, state of Paraná, Brazil. Zoologia 381–18.), and R io Grande do Sul (Dalzochio et al. 2018DALZOCHIO, M.S., RENNER, S., SGANZERLA, C., PRASS, G., ELY, G.J., SALVI, L.C., DAMETTO, N. & PÉRICO, E. 2018. Checklist of Odonata (Insecta) in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil with seven new records. Biota Neotrop. 18(4):e20180551.), as well as the Argentinian province of Misiones to the west (Lozano et al. 2020LOZANO, F. & MUZÓN, J. 2020. Erythrodiplax connata. IUCN Red List Threat. Species 2020 e.T103593974A103594277.) also situated within the Atlantic Forest biome. So far, Forcepsioneura haerteli Machado, 2001 (Coenagrionidae) is the single species recorded in the state listed as ‘Endangered under criteria’, whereas nine species (Appendix 2) fall under the Data Deficient category (i.e., insufficient assessment). This includes the three species so far recorded only in the state (Progomphus elegansBelle, 1983BELLE, J. 1983. A review of the genus Zonophora Selys (Odonata, Gomphidae). Tijdschr. voor Entomol. 126145–173. (Gomphidae), Neocordulia santacarinensisCosta, Ravanello & Souza-Franco, 2008HECKMAN, C.W. 2008. Encyclopedia of South American Aquatic Insects: Odonata - Zygoptera. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht. and Navicordulia atlantica Machado & Costa, 1995 (Corduliidae)). In relation to the latter, N. atlantica was recently reviewed to encompass synonymies (Pinto et al. 2022PINTO, Â.P., ALMEIDA, M.V.O. De & EHLERT, J. 2022. Three names, one species: junior synonyms for the Atlantic Forest emerald dragonfly Navicordulia atlantica (Odonata: Corduliidae s.s.). Rev. Bras. Entomol. 66(3):e20220052.) and lacks a thorough assessment of its conservation status.

Considering the municipal limits of the state, Seara municipality (western SC) stands out by far as the location with the most species recorded, followed by Joinville and Blumenau (Table 1). This remarkable pattern is largely due to the outstanding legacy of the late entomologist Fritz Plaumann (1902–1994), settled in (former Nova Teutonia, currently Seara) in the early decades of the 20^th century (Lubenow 2017LUBENOW, A.M. 2017. UM Alemão em Santa Catarina: a coleção entomológica entomológica Fritz Plaumann. Museol. Interdiscip. 5(9):109–119.). The continuous sampling effort and wide network of scientific collaboration by Mr. Plaumann throughout the 20^th century resulted in a long-standing rate of description of new insect species for the region, which ensured a continuous increase in the knowledge of the regional diversity (Silva 1998SILVA, R.R. da. 1998. A coleção entomológica do Museu Fritz Plaumann. Biotemas 11(2):157–164.). Several regions of the state remain unexplored, mostly the central and westernmost areas of the state, near the border with Argentina (Figure 1). In addition, although several records are reported for the southern and eastern coast, the richer and more densely populated areas of the state, including the surroundings of Joinville and Florianópolis (the largest city and the state capital, respectively), many of these areas are under-sampled. This is because almost the entirety of the knowledge in the state is represented by species descriptions, and studies using systematic sampling of adult Odonata are basically non existing in the state. In fact, the known diversity of several odonate groups covering forest specialist taxa (Anisoptera species from many genera of Gomphidae and Aeshnidae; Zygoptera species from families Coenagrionidae and Heteragrionidae) is lower than in other states. In this context, the loss of several specimens stored in scientific collection of the Museu Nacional (MNRJ; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), likely represented an important impediment for a deeper understanding of the Odonata diversity in the state, considering that many holotypes of the fauna of SC were stored at MNRJ.

Conclusion

Finally, the checklist of species of Odonata presented here poses a significant advance considering the previously unsystematic available literature for the state (Pinto 2024bPINTO, Â.P. 2024b. Odonata in Santa Catarina. Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Bras. PNUD., Heckman 2006HECKMAN, C.W. 2006. Encyclopedia of South American Aquatic Insects: Odonata – Anisoptera. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht., 2008IBGE - INSTITUTO BRASILIERO DE GEOGRAFIA E ESTATÍSTICA. 2019. Biomas e sistema costeiro-carinho do Brasil: compatível com a escala 1:250. 000. Editora do IBGE, Rio de Janeiro.), this number increases the species records for the state by 40%.

However, considering the scientific nature of this research (full recollection of secondary data), our list is to be considered only preliminary. We specifically refrained ourselves from including species records available at online databases and unreviewed by taxonomists. On this matter, we strongly recommend further review of records available at institutional repositories (e.g., museums and university collections) and public (e.g., GBIF, Splink) to tackle the shortfalls of biodiversity of Odonata in southern South America.

Supplementary Material

Table S1 - Codes for the bibliographic sources consulted for elaboration of the checklist of Odonata species from Santa Catarina state, Brazil.

Table S2 - List and codes for the municipalities (and corresponding locality names, when available) in Santa Catarina state where occurrence of species was recorded, as extracted from the literature.

Acknowledgments

We greatly thank the support of senior members from the Sociedad(e) de Odonatología Latinoamericana (SOL) for granting us access to personal databases of odonate species records. We are specifically grateful to Dr. Natalia von Ellenrieder and Dr. Rosser William Garrison for granting us access to part of the Neotropical Odonata database, and to Dr. Leandro Juen and Dr. Paulo de Marco Júnior, to part of the Brazilian Odonata database. MMP was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS) with a postdoctoral scholarship (#150142/2023-4). We thank CNPq for providing a research productivity grant to EP (#304751/2022-7).

Data Availability

Data used in this work were deposited in a permanent repository in accordance with the instructions for authors: https://doi.org/10.48331/scielodata.YLYT3X.

References

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