Odonata of Friuli Venezia Giulia: second update of Checklist and further remarks

Within the Project “Atlas of the Odonatofauna of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region”, additional remarks of the Odonata of the region (North-eastern Italy) was carried out in the years 2010-2014. The new data have allowed us to enrich the regional Checklist of Odonata with five species: Chalcolestes parvidens (Artobolevsky, 1929) and Lindenia tetraphylla (Vander Linden, 1825) that have not been observed previously in the region and Anax ephippiger (Burmeister, 1839), Gomphus vulgatissimus (Linnaeus, 1758), and Sympetrum flaveolum (Linnaeus, 1758) that have been detected in previous years. In addition, knowledge of the distribution of twelve species that are rare or of natural interest has been improved. At the present time the Checklist of Odonata of Friuli Venezia Giulia includes 62 species representing 66% of the Italian fauna. Two species, L. tetraphylla and Cordulegaster heros Theischinger, 1979, are listed in the Annexes of the Habitats Directive. The list includes some species that have migratory tendencies and probably do not breed regularly in the region, such as L. tetraphylla and A. ephippiger. It is possible that in the near future other species might be found, some of which have already been reported for the region. Despite the considerable richness of species, we highlight a critical status for some species that are typical of mountain or alpine habitats, such as Coenagrion hastulatum (Charpentier, 1825), C. heros, Somatochlora alpestris (Selis 1840), S. arctica (Zetterstedt, 1840), Sympetrum danae (Sulzer, 1776) and Leucorrhinia dubia (Vander Linden, 1825). In addition, Nehalennia speciosa (Charpentier, 1840) is near extinction at the regional and national level due to the presence of just one breeding site located in a peat bog in the morainic hilly area.