The Odonate fauna of Val Grande National Park (Insecta: Odonata)
Author
Pompilio, Lucia
Società di Scienze Naturali del Verbano Cusio Ossola, Natural Science Museum of Collegio Mellerio Rosmini, Via Antonio Rosmini 24, 28845 Domodossola (VB) - lucia. pompilio @ libero. it
lucia.pompilio@libero.it
Author
Mosini, Andrea
Valgrande Società Cooperativa, via alla Cartiera 41, 28923 Verbania Possaccio (VB) - mosiniandrea @ gmail. com
mosiniandrea@gmail.com
text
Fragmenta entomologica
2021
2021-03-15
53
1
25
42
http://dx.doi.org/10.13133/2284-4880/434
journal article
10.13133/2284-4880/434
2284-4880
8147966
21.
Crocothemis erythraea
(Brullé, 1832)
Conservation and breeding status:
LC (EU), LC (IT), LC (MED), B?
This afro-mediterranean lentic dragonfly was recorded in EXP (6) and PDS (15); in the latter, reproduction was considered likely in a pond at around
1000 m
. Two historic records were reported for the municipality of Villette in Vigezzo valley, which lies near Pian dei Sali, by De Carlini (1892) and Bentivoglio (1908a, in Capra & Galletti 1978), but they were considered doubtful by
Boano et al. 2007
. The Atlas of Piedmont reported
C. erythraea
as widespread and abundant in the plains and hills of Piedmont below
600 m
and its population trend was reported as increasing. As for other species, further surveys confirmed a wider distribution in the Alps (
Clemente et al. 2011
;
Riservato et al. 2014c
), although most populations reproduce below
500 m
and records as high as
2000 m
refer to dispersing individuals (
Bionda et al. 2013
;
Pettavino 2015
;
Siesa 2017
). In
Switzerland
its distribution is limited to low elevations also and the species is absent from Alpine highlands (
Wildermuth et al. 2005
).
Due to their quick response to global warming, dragonflies are good indicators of climate change (
McNeely 2010
); thus, increasing records of this thermophilic species at high altitudes in the Alps could really be linked to a genuine expansion on a 10-15 year time span, rather than to an earlier lack of relevant data and further surveys are needed to confirm reproduction in PNVG and surrounding areas. Indeed,
C. erythraea
expansion was already well documented north of the Alps 10 years ago (Krokhalo 2010,
Ott 2010
,
Parr 2010
) and has been recently confirmed as moderate on a European scale (Termaat et al. 2019).