Xavier Maynou

Institució Catalana d'Història Natural · Odonata Study Group

This report identifies a set of priority actions needed to reverse the declines of thirty threatened dragonfly species in the European Union. It is based on data from the latest European Red List of Dragonflies and Damselflies (2024) and employs the “Assessment to Plan” methodology of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) with a specific focus...

We describe the larval development and voltinism of nine species of running water dragonflies and damselflies from the upper and middle reaches of the Tordera, a Mediterranean-climate river located in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula. We sampled larvae between October 2020 and October 2022. We determined larval growth patterns and identified...

1. Climate change has the potential to modify habitat characteristics and, consequently, induce species responses to ongoing environmental changes. Functional traits determine both if a species can persist and maintain stable population sizes in particular ecological conditions, and its capacity to disperse to more favourable habitats. 2. Given tha...

Understanding the biogeography and geographical distributions of functional traits and species and their contribution to global patterns of biodiversity is still challenging ecology and evolutionary biology. The responses of species to environmental conditions and biotic interactions are determined by their functional traits, which are defined as t...

In a mountain river in the Montseny massif, Catalan Pre-Coastal Range, northeastern Iberian Peninsula, we found a Hydra sp. (Anthomedusae: Hydridae) attached to the abdomen of a larva of Calopteryx virgo meridionalis.

We describe larval Paratanytarsus sp. as epibionts on larvae of Calopteryx xanthostoma and C. haemorrhoidalis in the Tordera River, NE Iberian Peninsula. Tubular cases were fixed to different body parts such as thorax, abdomen, legs, and wing sheaths.

We describe larval Paratanytarsus sp. as epibionts on larvae of Calopteryx xanthostoma and C. haemorrhoidalis in the Tordera River, NE Iberian Peninsula. Tubular cases were fixed to different body parts such as thorax, abdomen, legs, and wing sheaths.

In a mountain river in the Montseny massif, Catalan Pre-Coastal Range, northeastern Iberian Peninsula, we found a Hydra sp. (Anthomedusae: Hydridae) attached to the abdomen of a larva of Calopteryx virgo meridionalis.

We describe a case of phoresis of Rheotanytarsus sp. (Diptera: Chironomidae) on larvae of Calopteryx virgo meridional-is Selys 1873 and Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis (Vander Linden, 1825) (Odonata: Calopterygidae) in a mountain river in the Montseny massif, Catalan Pre-Coastal Range, NE Iberian Peninsula.

We describe the composition, structure and seasonal variation of the adult Odonata community of a Mediterranean stream in the Catalan Pre-Coastal mountain range (NE Iberian Peninsula) and assess the stream’s conservation value using a multimetric approach based on measurements of species richness, diversity and abundance, presence of bioindicator s...

We investigated the Odonata species composition of larvae, final instar (F-0) exuviae, and adults occurring in a sequence of two different mesohabitats − pool and riffle − in a short stretch of a Mediterranean stream running down the Catalonian Pre-Coastal mountain range (north-eastern Iberian Peninsula). We sampled them during the period 2017–2018...

This article presents the results of a field study carried out in the Gallecs Rural Area (Barcelona, Catalonia, NE Spain) in 2015 in order to determine the emergence and flight periods of the dragonflies inhabiting a group of four small permanent and temporary man-made ponds set up through an amphibian breeding habitat project. In total fifteen tax...

How species will respond to current rates of climate change is a critical question in biodiversity conservation. Climate change has the potential to modify habitat characteristics and, consequently, it is predicted that: 1) many species may shift their distribution ranges to higher latitudes or altitudes to remain in a similar environmental niche;...

The Sympetrum vulgatum (Linnaeus, 1758) complex is composed of the subspecies S. vulgatum vulgatum, S. vulgatum decoloratum (Selys, 1884) and S. vulgatum ibericum Ocharan, 1985 in the West Palaearctic. These taxa have parapatric distributions and noticeable morphological differences in colour and body size, and their taxonomic status is debated. He...

Habitat loss and degradation are considered major threats to freshwater biodiversity and to invertebrates in particular. These often irreversible processes may lead to local and regional extinctions of species, most nota-bly of stenotopic taxa. In spite of this, a number of stud-ies have shown that small habitat patches can sustain rich and abundan...

[In Catalan] Fruit de 10 anys de treball de camp, és un recull exhaustiu de la informació existent sobre les libèl·lules. Conté una introducció a la biologia del grup i 70 fitxes, una per a cadascuna de les espècies catalogades, que inclouen un mapa de distribució, una descripció detallada de la seva morfologia per facilitar-ne la identificació i v...

In a field study carried out in 2011 and 2014 adult dragonflies were identified as a rapid and easy-to-use means of assessing habitat quality and biological integrity of Mediterranean streams and rivers in the province of Barcelona (Region Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula). The study included sampling sites from five different river catchments: Besòs,...

Resumen: Se ha evaluado el grado de amenaza o vulnerabilidad de los 70 taxones de odonatos citados en Cataluña hasta el momento. Para ello se han utilizado más de 30.000 registros de observaciones procedentes de la base de datos de Oxygastra GEOC (Grupo de Estudio de los Odonatos de Cataluña) que incluyen información sobre distribución, abundancias...

The basin of the Flamisell river, a tributary of the Noguera Pallaresa river, was surveyed and a prelimi-nary list of the dragonfly species present and of the main types of habitats where they reproduce was obtained. In this study, a total of 37 species were recorded. In the alpine and subalpine glacial lakes area no dragonflies were detected exce...

Es presenta un catàleg actualitzat de 28 espècies d'odonats trobades al massís de Sant Llorenç del Munt i la serra de l'Obac (Catalunya) els anys 2007 i 2008 i una estimació del grau de presència de cadascuna d'elles. Es compara la llista d'espècies obtinguda amb els registres existents, antics i més recents. La diversitat específica actual del mas...