Dragonflies exhibited in the Zoological Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

In March 1995,1 visited the Zoological Museum of St Petersburg, where a collection of insects open to public inspection is to be found on the upper floor. The insects are in 10 cupboards, each of which has seven 1 m2 display cases. One of these contains 93 dragonfly specimens. Most of them are in good condition, only a few having lost their head or abdomen, and the colours are well preserved. There is no evidence of any damage caused by museum beetles. The dragonfly collection gives a good impression of the species that commonly occur in central and southern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Middle America. The species names are more or less in accordance with modern nomenclature, with the labels written in both Latin and Kyrillic script. Additional labels give information on the sex of the specimens. In the collection, there are also drawings of calopterygid, aeshnid, and libellulid (perhaps Sympetrum) larvae. Altogether, 64 species are in the collection. Unfortunately, the information concerning the lestid species has been mislaid, so the lestids are listed from memory and therefore associated with a question mark. As far as I could see, all species are correctly identified. However, two chlorocyphid species were not identifiable: their given names are not listed by C.A. BRIDGES (1994, Catalogue of the family-group, genus-group and species-group names of the Odonata of the world [3rd edn]. Bridges, Urbana/ Illinois).