A note on the Odonata collected in southwestern Rajasthan, India

As a part of his itinerary, the second author (PLM) joined the host (BKT) on a brief dragonfly collecting expedition in the desert district of Jodhpur and in the forests of Mt Abu in western and southern Rajasthan, respectively, during late August and early September, 1990. Rajasthan State experienced a very heavy monsoon that year, while Jodhpur district alone had about 1000 mm rainfall, the annual average being 300-350 mm. The last time it exceeded 1000 mm was in 1917. Rains of varying intensities occurred during the course of the authors’ collecting. Jodhpur is often referred to as The Gateway to the Great Indian Desert” (Thar) and is, therefore, expected to harbour dragonflies characteristic of two kinds of biotope, i.e. the west-central planes of the mainland as well as the arid and desert zones of western Rajasthan. The authors are not aware of any official list of species describing either the desert or the mountanous dragonflies from Rajasthan, although the first author knows of some collections preserved in the ZSTs Arid Zone Research Centre, Jodhpur.