Dragonfly diversity from the Cape to the Kavango
Dragonflies are amongst the most well-studied and most recognised insects and there is an ongoing worldwide initiative in which the diversity and conservation status of all species are being assessed. In Africa, where about 900 species of Odonata occur, the southern part of the continent is currently the best surveyed for Odonata. In this chapter we analyse and depict biodiversity distribution patterns in the BIOTA transect area, from the Cape in the south to the Okavango River in the north, using Odonata databases for Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. We counted species numbers in each WWF Terrestrial Ecoregion and freshwater basin. Species numbers were highest in the Zambezian ecoregions followed by the Cape ecoregions, whereas the drier ecoregions had fewer species, except for a few outstanding localities. The proportions of range-restricted species were highest in the Cape and Zambezian ecoregions accounting for at least one third of the species, whereas all other ecoregions were almost exclusively populated by widespread species.
Biodiversity in southern Africa
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Dragonfly diversity from the Cape to the Kavango_2010.pdf | 1.6 MB |