Odonate Fauna of Rajasthan, India with Links to Arabia and Himalaya - Aquatic Ecosystem: Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation - page 113

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Odonate Fauna of Rajasthan, India
with Links to Arabia and Himalaya

Akhlaq Husain *

Abstract
The present paper deals with the update on odonate fauna of Rajasthan,
based on earlier records. All together, there are 53 species belonging 34
genera, 8 families under 2 suborders with 15 species common to Arabia
and 51 to Himalaya which confi rms the linkage of Rajasthan and Thar
Desert to Sahara Desert and Palaearctic Region. A list of 20 more species,
recently recorded from southern part of the state, has also been added.

Keywords
Odonate • Rajasthan • Distribution • Checklist

Introduction

cies belonging 34 genera, 8 families under 2
suborders with 15 (28.30 %) species common to
Arabia and 51 (96.23 %) to Himalaya which is
interesting from zoogeographical point of view
and confi rms the theory of the linkage of 'Indian
Desert' to Sahara Desert and Palaearctic Region.
Colouration/measurements of species are fol-
lowed after Fraser ( 1933 , 1934 , 1936 ), Prasad
( 1996b , 2004a , b , 2007 ) and Subramanian ( 2009 ).

The odonate fauna of Rajasthan has attracted the
attention of various workers (Agarwal 1957 ;
Bose and Mitra 1976 ; Prasad and Thakur 1981 ;
Thakur 1985 ; Tyagi and Miller 1991 ; Prasad and
Varshney 1995 ; Prasad 1996a , b , 2004a , b ;
Chandra and Sharma 2010 ; Sharma 2010a , b , c ,
2011a , b , 2012 ; Sharma and Dhadeech 2010 ,
2011 ; Sharma and Sewak 2010a , b ; Sharma and
Kankane 2012 ; Husain 2011 ; Husain and Sharma
2012 ; Palot and Soniya 2000 ) during the past but
no consolidated and update account of the total
species is available and hence an attempt in this
regard has been made. The old records are gener-
ally limited to mere lists. In all there are 53 spe-

Rajasthan

Rajasthan is the largest state of India by area
(10.4 %, covering 342,239 km 2 ), located between
23° 30 E

in north-west, which parallels the Sutlej-Indus
river valley along its border with Pakistan to the
west. It is also bordered by Gujarat to the south-
west, Madhya Pradesh to the south-east, Uttar
Pradesh and Haryana to the north-east and Punjab

′ and 30° 11 ′ N and 69° 29 ′ and 78° 17 ′