Dragonflies of the Black Forest

Description of the project

As part of this project, freely accessible lakes, ponds, pools and other places where dragonflies live are checked and the species found there are recorded. The findings are fed into the database of the Baden-Württemberg Dragonfly Conservation Association in order to document the distribution of the individual species.

Sites for which older reports are available should also be checked to see whether the species found are still present there.

The individual species will be portrayed here with photographs in different situations, later possibly on a separate website.

I can also imagine creating an exhibition or an illustrated book from the photographs at the end.

The dragonflies

Currently, 81 dragonfly species are regularly observed in Germany. Some of them are more common, others are rare or even endangered in their habitats.

While an analysis of an observation database revealed that 58 species were found in the Black Forest, Sternberg and Buchwald list 48 species in their work "Die Libellen Baden-Württembergs".

I have currently found the following species:

Damselflies
	Calopterygoidea
						Demoiselles (Calopteryx)
							Beautiful demoiselle	Calopteryx virgens
							Banded demoiselle	Calopteryx splendens
	Lestoidea
					Spreadwings
						Sympecma
							Common Winter Damselfly	Sympecma fusca
						Lestes
							Emerald Damselfly	Lestes sponsa
							Emerald Spreadwing	Lestes dryas
							Small Emerald Damselfly	Lestes virens
							Southern Emerald Damselfly	Lestes barbarus
						Willow Spreadwings
							Willow emerald damselfly	Chalcolestes viridis
	Coenagrionoidea
		Coenagrionidae
					Ischnurinae
						Forktails (Bluetails)
							Blue-tailed Damselfly	Ischnura elegans
						Bluets
							Common Blue Damselfly	Enallagma cyathigerum
					Coenagrioninae
						Eurasian Bluets
							Dainty Damselfly	Coenagrion scitulum
							Azure Damselfly	Coenagrion puella
							Northern Damselfly	Coenagrion hastulatum
						Pyrrhosoma
							Large red damselfly	Pyrrhosoma nymphula
						Erythromma
							Red-eyed damselfly	Erythromma najas
							Small Redeyed damselfly	Erythromma viridulum
							Goblet-marked damselfly	Erythromma lindenii
		White-legged damselflies
			Blue featherleg					Platycnemis pennipes
Dragonflies
	Aeshnoidea
		Aeshnidae
						Mosaic darners
							Brown hawker	Aeshna grandis
							Southern hawker	Aeshna cyanaea
							Bog hawker	Aeshna subarctica
							Common hawker	Aeshna juncea
						Anax
							Emperor dragonfly	Anax imperator
		Clubtail dragonflies
						Gomphus
							Western clubtail	Gomphus pulchellus
						Pincertails
							Small Pincertail	Onychogomphus forcipatus
	Cordulegastroidea
		Cordulegastridae
						Cordulegaster
							Sombre Goldenring	Cordulegaster bidentata
							Golden-ringed Dragonfly	Cordulegaster boltonii
	Libelluloidea
		Cordulia
					Corduliinae
						Cordulia
							Downy Emerald	Cordulia aenea
						Somatochlora
							Brilliant Emerald	Somatochlora metallica
		Libellulidae
					Libellulinae
						Libellula
							Four-spotted Chaser	Libellula quadrimaculata
							Broad-bodied Chaser	Libellula depressa
							Scarce Chaser	Libellula fulva
						Orthetrum
							Black-tailed Skimmer	Orthetrum cancellatum
							Keeled Skimmer	Orthetrum coerulescens
							Southern Skimmer	Orthetrum brunneum
					Leucorrhiniinae
						Leucorrhinia
							Large white-faced darter	Leucorrhinia pectoralis
							White-faced Darter	Leucorrhinia dubia
							Ruby whiteface	Leucorrhinia rubicunda
					Sympetrinae
						Crocothemis
							Scarlet Darter	Crocothemis erythraea
						Sympetrum
							Ruddy Darter	Sympetrum sanguineum
							Red-veined Darter	Sympetrum fonscolombii
							Vagrant darter	Sympetrum vulgatum
							Common Darter	Sympetrum striolatum
							Black Darter	Sympetrum danae

Some of these species are regularly found at the respective sites, others are not regularly or even only occasionally found there. It also happens that species that are not normally found in the Black Forest can be observed there. For example, I have already observed the fire dragonfly, the forked damselfly and the large moss dragonfly in the Black Forest. These species have been observed less than 10 times in the Black Forest.

Literature

1. Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra, Libellen Europas - Der Bestimmungsführer, Haupt Bern, 2014
2. Klaus Sternberg / Rainer Buchwald, Die Libellen Baden-Württembergs, Band 1, Verlag Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co. KG, 1999
3. Klaus Sternberg / Rainer Buchwald, Die Libellen Baden-Württembergs, Band 2, Verlag Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co. KG, 1999
4. Hansruedi Wildermuth / Andreas Marten,Taschenlexikon der Libellen Europas, Quelle & Meyer, 2014
5. Arne W. Lehmann / J. Hendrik Nüß, Libellen, Deutscher Jugendbund für Naturbeobachtung, 6. Auflage 2015
6. Dirk Pape-Lange, Libellen-Handbuch, Selbstverlag
7. Libellula Supplement 14, Atlas der Libellen Deutschlands, Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft deutschsprachiger Odonatologen (GdO) e.V., ISSN 0723-6514

All these books are in german.

There are some organisations in Germany, that deal with dragonflies:

1. Gesellschaft deutschsprachiger Odonatologen e. V. (GdO)
2. Schutzgemeinschaft Libellen in Baden-Württemberg e.V.
3. British Dragonfly Society

Links

There are several sites on the Internet that deal with dragonflies and can be used for identification:

• https://www.libellenschutz.ch
• httop://www.libellenwissen.de
• https://www.libellen.tv
• https://www.waldschrat-online.de/libellen/

All of them are in german.