Diversity of Palaearctic Dragonflies and Damselflies (Odonata)

More than 1.2 million distribution records were used to create species models for 402 Palaearctic of dragonflies and damselflies. On the basis these diversity maps total, lentic lotic whole (excluding China Himalayan region) are presented. These show a clear pattern decreasing longitudinally, with numbers dropping in eastern half Europe remaining low throughout large part Russia, then increasing again towards Russia’s Far East Korea. There differences patterns species, being dominant colder more arid areas. Areas high assessed as threatened on IUCN red list largely restricted Mediterranean, Southwest Asia, Japan, hotspots found Levant southern Japan. The at generic, family level is higher south Japan areas similar latitude western Mediterranean. This likely be result humid climate resulting freshwater habitats stronger impact glacial periods Western combination Sahara, preventing tropical African lineages dispersing northwards.