New records of Libellula fulva (Müll.) for Portugal (Anisoptera: Libellulidae)

On 25 March 1995, a female was captured and photographed in an orchard near the hamlet Ludo, about 4 km W of Faro, Algarve. Though not absolutely teneral, the individual had clearly emerged recently. Ludo is fringed by saltmarshes, but there is a fresh creek with reeds nearby. From 29 April to4May 1997, up to 20 males and a copula were seen and photographed in ditches between fishponds S of the coastal village of Praia de Mira, 25 km S of Aveiro, Beira Litoral. The above constitute the first records of L. fulva from Portugal sinceA.F. DE SEABRA (1939, Direcc. geral Serve, florest. aquicol. 6: 194-196), who mentioned the species from Soure, 25 km SW of Coimbra, Beira Litoral, in 1937. This is only 45 km away from the 1997 location. According to the known records, L.fulva is very local and scarce in Iberia (see Fig. 1). It is widespread in France, excluding much of the Massif Central (J.-L. DOMMANGET, 1987, Etude faunistique et bibliographique des odonates de France, Mus. natn. Hist, nat., Paris; 1994, Atlas preliminaire des odonates de France, Mus. natn. Hist, nat., Paris), but is absent from North Africa (D. ASKEW, 1988, The dragonflies of Europe, Harley, Colchester), The scarcity of Iberian records can perhaps be explained by the species’s relatively early flight period and low densities, which can make it underrecorded. O.-P. WENGER (1963, Mitt. Schweiz, ent. Ges. 35: 255-269) mentioned it to be plentiful in Girona province in July 1954, but much scarcer in later years. Other records are of one or only several individuals (C. DUFOUR, 1978, Cah. Nat. 32: 41-43; R. JÖD1CKE, 1996, Adv. OdonatolSuppl. 1: 155-189). The 1995 record, along with that from Huelva, Spain (C. DUFOUR, 1968, l.c.), proofs its occurrence in the most arid parts of southwestern Europe,