The Dragonfly app is an earnest and humble effort to enable the user to identify dragonflies and damselflies, Odonata (Insecta), across the Western Ghats, India.
The Western Ghats in India is recognised for its biodiversity and endemism. The range of mountains extends over 1600 km along the western coast of India. The region is recognised as one of the world’s eight ‘hottest hotspots’ of biological diversity (UNESCO).
A sum of 193 species of Odonata (Insecta) reported from the Western Ghats. Of those, 75 species belong to damselflies (Zygoptera) and 118 species remain dragonflies (Anisoptera). 74 species are endemic to the region.
119 species are illustrated in the mobile app. Out of those, 47 species represent damselflies and 72 species remain dragonflies. 29 species are endemic to the region. All the species are described with photographs and key identification characteristics.
The Dragonfly app contains three easy to use search options to help you to identify a species. A general species search with alphabetically arranged images, a taxonomy-based search and a general search by typing the keywords are the features to help you to confirm the identity. The taxonomy search, dragonfly and damselfly search lead you through the hierarchies from Suborder to species level. Efforts are made to incorporate the images of male and female individuals, their genitalia, anal appendages, and wing of rare and endemic species. Species descriptions like size, wing, abdomen and anal appendages and their distribution are also included. Every species page consists of all taxonomic hierarchies such as common English name, order, suborder, superfamily, family, genera and species name.
The photographs used in this application are personally documented by the authors. The pieces of literature included in species descriptions such as species measurements, descriptions, and distribution are collected from various paper publications and reference books.
We presume that the Dragonfly app will help students, research scholars and life science teachers to identify most of the common, rare and endemic Odonata fauna that occurs in the Western Ghats.