The above link is to Odonata Central, where the World Odonata List is also carried, presented in the TaxonWorks format. That list will be continually updated along with the present list, but it will eventually have many more features.
Last revision: 19 December 2024
Currently 6,430 recognized species of Odonata
Dennis Paulson
Puget Sound Museum of Natural History, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA 98416, USA
Martin Schorr
Waldfrieden 25, D-54314 Zerf, Germany
Cyrille Deliry
16 rue Jules Ferry F-79000 Niort, France
Note: Please inform Dennis Paulson (dennispaulson@comcast.net) of any errors of commission or omission. Thank you.
There is continued attempt made to have the list of World Odonata used by the IUCN in its Red List assessments conform to the World Odonata List, and we thank Caroline Pollock of IUCN for making this possible and K-D Dijkstra, Viola Clausnitzer and Rory Dow for furnishing information of importance as we worked out the problems. This prompted an update on 19 June 2020, in which we have entered numerous synonymies that have not been published yet but were suggested in several publications, including The Dragonflies and Damselflies of Eastern Africa, by Dijkstra & Clausnitzer (2014). These synonymies are all intended for publication in the near future, and making the changes brought the list closer to the actual known diversity of Odonata.
All names followed by (nomen nudum) in the original list have been deleted, as these names are not thought to have any bearing on odonate biodiversity and can never be applied to a species. Furthermore, we have eliminated the words "form(a)" "race" and "var." from the list, considering them from the purpose of the list as the equivalent of subspecies, even though we realize they were not necessarily named as geographic entities.
NOTE: The list has just been substantially revised from the conclusions of this paper: Phylogeny and classification of Odonata using targeted genomics, by Seth M. Bybee and 13 other authors in 2021. Most of the damselflies that had been classified as Incertae Sedis now have been recognized as their own families. Only Rimanella and Sciotropis were not available for this study, and they are listed at the end of Calopterygoidea, one of three superfamilies recognized in the Zygoptera. Because of this study, the order of the families within this superfamily has been changed greatly. Note the new listing below.
Thanks also to John Abbott (special thanks), Colin Adams, Yahya Abdal-Aziz, Pekka Alestalo, Matjaz Bedjanic, Viola Clausnitzer, Prosenjit Dawn, K-D Dijkstra (special thanks), Rory Dow, Günther Fleck, Heinrich Fliedner, Michael Frank, Ryo Futahashi, Rosser Garrison, Dirk Gassmann, Matti Hämäläinen, Arjen van het Hof, Marcel Hospers, Rasmus Hovmoller, Jim Johnson, Anneke Jonker, Jeevan Jose, Kwang-Soo Jung, Vincent Kalkman, Tom Kompier, Oleg Kosterin, Noppadon Makbun, Alan Manson, Andreas Martens, Reuven Martin, Michael May, Jose Martin Meléndez Quinto, Sarah Miller, Johann Hendrik Nüss, Fons Peels (special thanks), Graham Reels, Felix Reimann, Reiner Richter, Richard Rowe, Dominic Rupprich, Igor Sheremetyev, Ken Tennessen, Csilla Vajda, Don-Alexander van Bergen, Nancy van der Poorten, Klaas van Manen, Martin Villet, Tim Vogt, Liang-Jong Wang, Florian Weihrauch, Keith Wilson (special thanks), Xin Yu, Ondrej Zicha and Dan Zimberlin (special thanks) for corrections and additions over the years. And thanks to Martin Lindeboom for his early contributions to this list.
This is an ongoing attempt to list all of the valid species of Odonata. It is based on past compilations by the authors listed below and constant additional literature research. It includes the author and year of description for all genera and species. It also includes all synonyms for all species (but not the genera) that we have been able to confirm. We consider the list a good starting point for estimates of biodiversity in this insect order. We must also point out that many typographical errors were introduced into the list when it was first typed, and as we continue to find these we correct them, but some may still persist.
We have been asked if there is any way that revisions of the list can be shown clearly. Right now this is impractical, both because the revisions are frequent, at least several times per month, and we have not come up with a method that would make this both easy on the compiler and easily recognized by the user. Because of the volume of changes, we also cannot cope with the responsibility of informing other workers who are maintaining their own versions of the list about every little change (e.g., correcting typographical errors in names or dates or adding new synonyms).
The committee keeping the World Odonata List up to date (on two websites, see above) generally accepts all taxonomic changes published in the literature. We do not publish changes from preprints or unpublished works. On the other hand, we do exercise some judgment about published conclusions, and if we think that a published taxonomic treatment is not fully supported by the research presented, for example synonymizing species or genera, we reserve the right to retain the status quo pending more complete arguments. We are attentive to any omissions or conclusions that we may have missed.
We have not recognized any subspecies of Odonata. Instead, we have listed all named subspecies with the species under which they were named. We are not able to judge the validity of these subspecies, and as many of them have been questioned, we chose to treat them all in the same fashion. Note also that there are a few species labeled (doubtful species). These are species that we are confident are unlikely to be valid, but they have not been formally synonymized with any known species.
The list includes Zygoptera through Coenagrionidae, then Anisozygoptera for Epiophlebiidae, then Anisoptera. Within each suborder the families are in some semblance of phylogenetic order, then the genera and species are in alphabetical order within the family. Indented names (not indented very far on some browsers) indicate (a) generic placement in the original description if different from the current generic placement, and (b) synonyms following "Syn."
You can use the Find function in your web browser to locate families, genera, and species.
General References
- Bridges, C. A. 1993. Catalogue of the family-group, genus-group and species-group names of the Odonata of the world (Second Edition). C. A. Bridges, Urbana, Illinois.
- Bybee, S. M., et al. 2021. Phylogeny and classification of Odonata using targeted genomics. Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution 160: 1-15 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2021.107115)
- Davies, D.A.L., & P. Tobin. 1984. The dragonflies of the world: A systematic list of the extant species of Odonata. Vol. 1. Zygoptera, Anisozygoptera. Societas Internationalis Odonatologica Rapid Comm. (Suppl.) No. 3, Utrecht.
- Davies, D.A.L., & P. Tobin. 1985. The dragonflies of the world: a systematic list of extant species of Odonata. Vol. 2. Anisoptera. Soc. Int. Odonatol. Rapid Comm. (Suppl.) No. 5., Utrecht.
- Dijkstra, K-D. B., G. Bechly, S. M. Bybee, R. A. Dow, H. J. Dumont, G. Fleck, R. W. Garrison, M. Hämäläinen, V. J. Kalkman, H. Karube, M. L. May, A. G. Orr, D. R. Paulson, A. C. Rehn, G. Theischinger, J. W. H. Trueman, J. van Tol, N. von Ellenrieder, & J. Ware. 2013. The classification and diversity of dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata). Zootaxa 3703(1): 36-45.
- Dijkstra, K-D. B., V. J. Kalkman, R. A. Dow, F. R. Stokvis & J. van Tol. 2014. Redefining the damselfly families: a comprehensive molecular phylogeny of Zygoptera (Odonata). Systematic Entomology 39(1): 68-96.
- Garrison, R. W., & N. von Ellenrieder 2019. A synonymic list of the New World Odonata. (Available under Resources on Odonata Central)
- Tsuda, S. 1991. A distributional list of World Odonata. Published by author, Osaka.
Families Listed
- ZYGOPTERA
Superfamily Lestoidea
Hemiphlebiidae
Lestidae
Perilestidae
Synlestidae
Superfamily Platystictoidea
Platystictidae
Superfamily Calopterygoidea
Priscagrionidae
Philogeniidae
Tatocnemididae
Pentaphlebiidae
Protolestidae
Mesagrionidae
Dicteriadidae
Hypolestidae
Heteragrionidae
Polythoridae
Mesopodagrionidae
Amanipodagrionidae
Pseudolestidae
Lestoideidae
Euphaeidae
Devadattidae
Amphipterygidae
Thaumatoneuridae
Rhipidolestidae
Philogangidae
Philosinidae
Argiolestidae
Megapodagrionidae
Calopterygidae
Chlorocyphidae
Rimanellidae
Sciotropis - INCERTAE SEDIS
Superfamily Coenagrionoidea
Isostictidae
Platycnemididae
Coenagrionidae - ANISOZYGOPTERA
Epiophlebiidae - ANISOPTERA
SuperfamilyAeshnoidea
Austropetaliidae
Aeshnidae
Superfamily Petaluroidea
Petaluridae
Superfamily Gomphoidea
Gomphidae
Superfamily Cordulegastroidea
Chlorogomphidae
Neopetaliidae
Cordulegastridae
Superfamily Libelluloidea
Macromiidae
Synthemistidae
Corduliidae
Libellulidae