Biodiversity Observations http://bo.adu.org.za An electronic journal published by the Animal Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town The scope of Biodiversity Observations consists of papers describing observations about biodiversity in general, including animals, plants, algae and fungi. This includes observations of behaviour, breeding and flowering patterns, distributions and range extensions, foraging, food, movement, measurements, habitat and colouration/plumage variations. Biotic interactions such as pollination, fruit dispersal, herbivory and predation fall within the scope, as well as the use of indigenous and exotic species by humans. Observations of naturalised plants and animals will also be considered. Biodiversity Observations will also publish a variety of other interesting or relevant biodiversity material: reports of projects and conferences, annotated checklists for a site or region, specialist bibliographies, book reviews and any other appropriate material. Further details and guidelines to authors are on this website. Lead Editor: Arnold van der Westhuizen – Guest Editor: K-D B Dijkstra SHOOT THE DRAGONS WEEK, ROUND 1: ODONATAMAP GROWS BY 1,200 RECORDS Les G Underhill, Alan D Manson, Jacobus P Labuschagne and Ryan M Tippett Recommended citation format: Underhill LG, Manson AD, Labuschagne JP, Tippett RM 2016. Shoot the Dragons Week, Round 1: OdonataMAP grows by 1,200 records. Biodiversity Observations 7.100: 1–14. URL: http://bo.adu.org.za/content.php?id=293 Published online: 27 December 2016 – ISSN 2219-0341 – Biodiversity Observations 7.100: 1–14 1 PROJECT REPORT SHOOT THE DRAGONS WEEK, ROUND 1: ODONATAMAP GROWS BY 1,200 RECORDS Les G Underhill1*, Alan D Manson2, Jacobus P Labuschagne3 & Ryan M Tippett4 1 Animal Demography Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701 South Africa 2 Soil Fertility Research, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Private Bag X9059, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 3 PO Box 129, Jukskeipark, 2188 South Africa 4 Ukuhamba Guiding, PO Box 533, Hluhluwe, 3960 South Africa * Email: [email protected] INTRODUCTION “Shoot the Dragons Week” is for OdonataMAP what the “LepiBash Week” was for LepiMAP (Loftie-Eaton 2016). They were both nine-day periods of focused data collection for the sections of the ADU Virtual Museum for Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and for Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) respectively. OdonataMAP aims to atlas the dragonflies and damselflies of Africa, and especially southern Africa (Underhill et al. 2016). The importance of the Odonata is highlighted in many places, and most recently in Samways & Simaika (2016). At the end of June this year, the project Figure 1. The eight countries in Africa from which records were submitted to had assembled 22,809 records of Odonata from 31 countries in Africa OdonataMAP during Shoot the Dragons Week, 26 November to 5 (Underhill et al. 2016). On 25 November, this number had grown to December 2016 Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, 25,120 records from 33 countries. Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe – ISSN 2219-0341 – Biodiversity Observations 7.100: 1–14 2 The first “Shoot the Dragons Week” was held from Saturday 26 Pseudagrion (sprites) and 23 to the equally difficult genus Trithemis November to Sunday 4 December, a period designed to include two (dropwings) (Appendix 1). weekends. We allowed citizen scientists to continue adding records to the database on Monday 5 December. The objective of the Shoot the While the expert panel were doing the identifications, they picked out Dragons Week was to boost the number of records entering the a small sample of records which they thought were interesting. This is OdonataMAP database, and to increase awareness of the project. not a systematic survey of the most important records submitted. This is the report back on what was achieved during the week. Table 1. Citizen scientists, some of whom worked in groups, who submitted 25 or more records during the Shoot the Dragons Week from 26 November to 5 December 2016. RESULTS Name Records 1,200 records were submitted during the Shoot the Dragons Week by 1 Jacobus (Lappies) Labuschagne 104 61 participants. 21 citizen scientists (or groups of citizen scientists) 2 Jean Hirons 83 contributed 25 or more records (Table 1). Jean Hirons, second on the 3 Corrie du Toit 82 list, Katharina Reddig, fifth, and Christopher Hines, number 11, all 4 Sharon Basel 65 submitted their first records to OdonataMAP during the week. The 5 Katharina Reddig 61 database increased from 25,120 records at the beginning of Shoot the 6 Christopher Peter Small 59 Dragons Week to 26,320 records at the end, an increase in the size of 7 Desire Darling; Gregg Darling 58 the database of 4.8%. 8 Andries Petrus de Vries; Joey de Vries 57 Records were submitted from eight countries: Angola, Botswana, 9 John H. Wilkinson 46 Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, 10 Helena Coetzee 42 Swaziland and Zimbabwe (Figure 1). Records were submitted from all 11 Christopher Hines 40 the provinces of South Africa (Figure 2). 12 Bertie Brink 39 13 Basil Boer; Corne Rautenbach; Sharon Of the 1,200 records submitted, 1,158 had confirmed identifications by Stanton; Wilna Steenkamp; Corrie du Toit; 38 members of the expert panel (AM, RT, JL and Bertie Brink) by 27 Heleen Louw; Antionio Serrao December, three weeks after the event (Appendix 1). 1,101 records 14 Rick Nuttall 36 were identified to species level, and there were representatives of 116 15 Gregg Darling; Des Darling 31 species. There were more than 50 records for three species: Red- 16 Altha Liebenberg 31 veined Dropwing Trithemis arteriosa had 103 records, Broad Scarlet 17 Riëtte Griesel 30 Croceothemis erythraea had 68 and the Tropical Bluetail Ischnura 18 Maritza van Rensburg 30 senegalensis had 55. Two records could only be identified to family 19 Alicia Culverwell 25 level; they belonged to the Coenagrionidae. 57 records were identified 20 Dawie Kleynhans; Sarieta Kleynhans 25 to genus; of these 24 belonged to the notoriously difficult genus 21 Ryan Matthew Tippett 25 – ISSN 2219-0341 – Biodiversity Observations 7.100: 1–14 3 Figure 3. This Forest Elf Tetrathemis camerunensis submitted from Angola by Christopher Hines is the southernmost record for this species (see Figure 4) (more detail at http://vmus.adu.org.za/?vm=OdonataMAP-26628). Figure 2. The distribution of records received for South Africa and Swaziland during the Shoot the Dragons Week of the OdonataMAP project, only the first for Angola, it is also the southernmost record ever for the 26 November to 5 December 2016. The shaded quarter degree grid cells species. The ODA database is managed by Jens Kipping and can be had records submitted from them. accessed through African Dragonflies and Damselflies Online (ADDO; http://addo.adu.org.za), a website created by Dr K-D Dijkstra, Stellenbosch University, supported by the JRS Biodiversity Foundation and hosted by the ADU. All except five of the 45 OdonataMAP records for Angola have been submitted by Christopher Hines. Record OdonataMAP 26628 The Bottletail Olpogastra lugubris is a tropical species. Prior to Shoot (http://vmus.adu.org.za/?vm=OdonataMAP-26628) is a Forest Elf the Dragons Week, there are only four OdonataMAP records of this Tetrathemis camerunensis (Figure 3) from the province of Bengo, in species from South Africa in the database. Another two (records Angola, submitted by Christopher Hines (in 11th place in Table 1). This 25579 and 26337, http://vmus.adu.org.za/?vm=OdonataMAP-25579 is the first photographic record of the species in OdonataMAP. The and http://vmus.adu.org.za/?vm=OdonataMAP-26337 were submitted distribution map (Figure 4), uses the 312 records in the Odonata by John Wilkinson during Shoot the Dragons Week, including this Database of Africa (ODA), and shows that Christopher’s record is not fantastic photo of a female in flight (Figure 5). John's home base is – ISSN 2219-0341 – Biodiversity Observations 7.100: 1–14 4 Ceriagrion banditum has only 23 records from eight quarter degree grid cells in ODA and this is the first photographic record in OdonataMAP (Figure 6, http://vmus.adu.org.za/?vm=OdonataMAP-26013). The importance of this record is further underlined by the fact that it was one of the 60 newly described species in Dijkstra et al. (2015), and is the first record after those made at the time of the discovery of the species. Record 26253 in OdonataMAP (for the details see http://vmus.adu.org.za/?vm=OdonataMAP-26253) is a Stream Hawker Pinheyschna subpupillata submitted by Walter Neser (Figure 7). This is a common species, occurring in South Africa, Figure 4. Forest Elf Tetrathemis camerunensis distribution map. This maps was generated on the Swaziland and Lesotho. It spends a lot of time flying ADDO website from the ODA database (see text for details) near Tshipise, in Limpopo Province, and this is a fantastic place to see many of the tropical odonates which are seldom recorded elsewhere in South Africa. John has submitted a total of 785 records to OdonataMAP. The rains fell in Katanga, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, just in time for Bertie Brink to "Shoot the Dragons" and just in time for him to Figure 5. Bottletail Olpogastra lugubris in return to South Africa to submit them flight. The photographer during “Shoot the Dragons Week”. His was John Wilkinson, trophies included eight species which Tshipize, Limpopo (see have no previous records in http://vmus.adu.org.za/?vm OdonataMAP, and several of them =OdonataMAP-25579 have relatively small numbers of for details) records in ODA. The Band-eyed Citril – ISSN 2219-0341 – Biodiversity Observations 7.100: 1–14 5 Figure 6. Band-eyed Citril Ceriagrion banditum was photographed in Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, by Bertie Brink (see http://vmus.adu.org.za/?vm=OdonataMAP-26013).