Odonate fauna (Insecta: Odonata) of Kashmir, Jammu & Kashmir, India: a preliminary report

: The current study was conducted to investigate the variety of Odonata in Kashmir from November 2020 to November 2022 . The study revealed the existence of 24 species, which includes 18 species of Anisoptera (dragonflies) under eight genera & two families and six species of Zygoptera (damselflies) in five genera & three families. New records of four species Orthetrum sabina (Drury, 1770), O. internum McLachlan, 1894, Aeshna petalura Martin, 1906, and Anax guttatus (Burmeister, 1839) from the region are provided herewith. Libellulidae (12 spp.) followed by Aeshnidae (six spp.) were recorded as two dominant families. This study provides some important baseline information on the odonates of Kashmir, Jammu & Kashmir, India.

Regional documentation of odonates is important for their long-term conservation and management and to J TT study other different aspects of the taxa like taxonomy, biology, ecology, behavior and biogeography. So, the present study was conducted to study Odonata fauna of Kashmir, J&K, India.

Study Area
Kashmir, province of Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir is the northwestern part of Himalaya bounded by Pir Panjal Range from the south-west and Great Himalaya from the north-east. The area of the valley is 15,853 km 2 and geographically it lies between 33. 30-34.40˚ N and 73.45-75.35˚ E. The average elevation level is 1,666 m although the surrounding mountains are at 3,000-4,250 m. The climate of the valley is temperate and has four distinct seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn). Kashmir is with vast and variety of aquatic and terrestrial resources manifested in the form of rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, forests, and meadows. The present study was conducted across the Kashmir valley and 14 sites were selected on the basis of altitude encompassing different ecosystems like rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, paddy fields, agricultural fields, forests, meadows, gardens, and parks ( Figure 1).

Methods
The odonates of Kashmir were studied monthly from November 2020 to November 2022. All surveys and samplings were carried out during sunny days using a combination of direct search technique (Sutherland 1996) and opportunistic sighting methods. The photographs of the species were taken using Canon EOS 200D II with 250 mm lens. The identification of species was done using taxonomic literature (Fraser 1933(Fraser , 1934(Fraser , 1936 and field guides (Subramanian 2009). For species nomenclature and classification, Kalkman et al.
(2020) and Subramanian & Babu (2017) were followed. Based on the frequency of sighting, species were locally categorized as Very Common (VC) when they were sighted during 75-100% of the field outings, Common (CO) when the sighting was between 50-75%, Occasional (OC) when the sighting was only 25-50%, and Rare (RA) when the sighting was below 25% (Adarsh et al. 2014).

Results and Discussion
A total of 24 species belonging to two suborders under 13 genera and five families were recorded during the present study (Table 1, Image 1). Zygoptera (damselflies) is represented by six species under five genera and three families while Anisoptera (dragonflies)  On the basis of occurrence of 24 species, six were found to be Very Common; seven species were Common, nine species to be Occasional while two species were

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