www.ucr.ac.cr Www.ots.ac.cr www.ots.duke.edu Odonata of Costa Rica: Diversity and checklist of spedes

Abstrae!: An updated lis! of ¡he Odonata of Costa Rica is presented containing 268 species. Sínce!he last pub líshed lisl for the country, 41 additional species have been reported. The country is!he best studied in Central America. The mos! species-rich families are Libellulidae, Coenagrionidae, Gomphidae, and Aeshnidae, togeth er comprising-75 % of the total fauna. Mos! species in the country are a1so found in South America, indicating a tendency for wide ranges rather than endemism. However, abou! a fifth of!he species appear lo be endemic to the Costa Ríca-Panama region. Estimates of ¡he range of ¡he proportion of total world species occurring in Costa Rica lead lO predictions of a range of 5 600-9 000 species of Odonata worldwide. Key woros: Odonata, Costa Rica, checklíst, aquatic entomology, diversity, tropics. Members of the order Odonata are among the most familiar groups of insects, perhaps surpassed only by the butierflies (order Lepidoptera). These insects are commonly known as dragonflies and damselflies in English and libélulas or caballitos del diablo in Spanish. Although adults are colorful and eas