‘De Nederlandse Libellen’, over resultaten en toekomst

This article provides an anthology of the recent published book ‘De Nederlandse Libellen’. It ends with targets for further field research. The main aim of the book is the presentation of the distribution of the seventy species recorded in The Netherlands. The distribution is given in three periods (before 1950, 1950-1989 and 1990-1997). Striking changes in distribution are for example visible in Erythromma viridulum, Sympecma fusca, Gomphus flavipes and G. vulgatissimus. The balance in the dragonfly fauna in the last 100 year is as follows: five species have disappeared, 20 have decreased, 23 are more or less stable and 17 have increased. Species of fens, brooks and rivers show the highest decreases. Morphology, life history and behaviour of dragonflies in relation to their environment is also described in the book. However, with the publication of this atlas, knowledge of dragonflies in The Netherlands is not complete. For the future the challenges are monitoring of the dragonfly populations, further distribution surveys and research on behaviour, ecology and the effects of nature management.