Modeling the distribution of odonates: from the pages of 20th century field notes to the shapefiles of the 21st century

Odonates, as charismatic insects with aquatic larval stages, are present in many museum collections and can serve as indicators of habitat health. The Frost Entomological Museum at Penn State University is in the process of digitizing the George H. and Alice F. Beatty collection of 60,000 odonate specimens. Digitization of this collection has liberated data associated with thousands of specimens, including rarely collected species, which can be utilized for generating niche models to identify patterns of species distributions over time. The addition of these digitized records and associated location data from field notes to the TaxonWorks database has increased and sometimes doubled the number of records of georeferenced odonates available online. Compiled with georeferenced specimens currently available in databases, ecological niche models were generated for 10 species in 25 year increments for the first time, tracking the shift of odonate habitats over the past 75 years. Identification of the edaphic and climatic factors driving odonates can be used for sampling efforts to reduce bias in museum collections. The models generated for species found in Pennsylvania were tested by sampling at several locations that fit the predicted niches