New data on the dragonfly fauna of the Moulouya River Basin and the Oriental Region, Morocco (Odonata)

Abdelkhaleq Fouzi Taybi1, Youness Mabrouki2, Ali Berrahou1, Mohamed Sbaa1, Christophe Brochard3, Y. Mabrouki1, Montse Ferrer4

1 Université Mohamed Premier, Oujda, Morocco; 2 Université Mohamed Premier, Oujda; 3 Bureau Biota Marsstraat, EL Groningen, Netherlands; 4 Arxius de Miscel·lània Zoològica, Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, Ps Picasso s/n, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

Corresponding author(s): Abdelkhaleq Fouzi TaybiYouness Mabrouki (younes_mab@hotmail.fr)Ali BerrahouMohamed SbaaChristophe Brochard, Y. Mabrouki (younes_mab@hotmail.fr)

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Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Taybi, A. F., Mabrouki, Y., Berrahou, A., Sbaa, M., Brochard, C., 2019. New data on the dragonfly fauna of the Moulouya River Basin and the Oriental Region, Morocco (Odonata). Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona. Dataset/Occurrence: https://doi.org/10.15470/dikubb https://doi.org/10.15470/dikubb

Abstract

We present new faunistic and distributional data on dragonflies (Odonata) from the east of Morocco, comprising the administrative Oriental Region and the Moulouya River Basin and covering an area of 119 268 km2. A checklist of 47 species belonging to 19 genera and seven families is provided. Pseudagrion s. sublacteum (Coenagrionidae), Aeshna mixta (Aeshnidae), Sympetrum sinaiticum and S. meridionale (Libellulidae) are new for Eastern Morocco, while Paragomphus genei (Gomphidae) is new for the Moulouya watershed. Our surveys yield evidence of breeding of Zygonyx torridus in the Moulouya River, of Sympetrum sinaiticum in the Oriental province, and also of Boyeria Irene, which remained unrecorded for more than three decades. We confirm the occurrence of Brachythemis impartita in the study area, by providing new sightings. Our results also revealed the range expansion of several other species whereas some previously known species in the region were not found. We found a clear dominance of the Palearctic elements, mainly Mediterranean, with a high proportion of Ibero-Maghrebian endemic species. This chorotype pattern is similar to patterns observed for other macroinvertebrate groups in the same study area.

Keywords: Dragonflies, inventory, Eastern Morocco, Ramsar site, Nador lagoon, Monitoring, New records, Occurrence, Occurrence

Data published through GBIF: https://ipt.gbif.es/resource?r=odonata_morocco

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Dragonfly fauna of the Moulouya River Basin and the Oriental Region, Morocco
Taxonomic ranks
Family: Family Calopterygidae, Family Lestidae, Family Coenagrionidae, Family Platycnemididae, Family Aeshnidae, Family Gomphidae, Family Cordulegastridae, Family Libellulidae

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Morocco is currently divided into 12 regions, including the Oriental Region, which occupies almost all the eastern side of the country and covers an area of 88 681 km2 (see Taybi et al., 2017b for details). The Oriental Region includes the wilaya of Oujda (Oujda-Angad prefecture) and the provinces of Berkane, Driouch, Figuig, Guercif, Jerada, Nador and Taourirt. The watershed of the Moulouya, which includes nearly 43 412 km2 of eastern Morocco, covers much of the Oriental Region. With a length of 600 km, the Moulouya is the largest Moroccan river and flows into the Mediterranean. Its main tributaries are the Oueds Ansegmir, Melloulou, Za and Msoun, all permanent. Other tributaries are presently intermittent (3–5 flash floods on average per year) (Bensaad et al., 2017; Mabrouki et al., 2017b).
Coordinates: 32°0'0''N and 35°27'39.6''N Latitude; 4°55'58.8''W and 1°47'27.6''W Longitude 

Temporal coverage: March 19, 2014 - August 31, 2018

Methods

Method step description: The samples of benthic fauna (including Odonata larvae) were collected using kick nets and landing nets, exuviae were collected from the riparian and shoreline vegetation using clamps, and adults were caught by entomological hand nets. Samples were identified to species level, placed in labelled tubes with 70 % or 96 % ethanol, and deposited in the collections of aquatic macroinvertebrates at the Laboratory of Water Sciences, Environment and Sustainable Development of the University Mohammed Premier from Oujda (Morocco). Most of the adults were identified in the field and released soon after.
Study extent description: Morocco is currently divided into 12 regions, including the Oriental Region (Fig. 1), which occupies almost all the eastern side of the country and covers an area of 88 681 km2 (see Taybi et al., 2017b for details). The Oriental Region includes the wilaya of Oujda (Oujda-Angad prefecture) and the provinces of Berkane, Driouch, Figuig, Guercif, Jerada, Nador and Taourirt. The watershed of the Moulouya (Fig. 1), which includes nearly 43 412 km2 of eastern Morocco, covers much of the Oriental Region. With a length of 600 km, the Moulouya is the largest Moroccan river and flows into the Mediterranean. Its main tributaries are the Oueds Ansegmir, Melloulou, Za and Msoun, all permanent. Other tributaries are presently intermittent (3–5 flash floods on average per year) (Bensaad et al., 2017; Mabrouki et al., 2017b).
Sampling description: uring field surveys conducted from 2014 to 2018 more than 100 localities were investigated in the Moulouya River basin and the Oriental Region (see Appendix for the complete list of localities). Most of these sampling sites were visited at least three times.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive New data on the dragonfly fauna of the Moulouya River Basin and the Oriental Region, Morocco (Odonata)
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://ipt.gbif.es/archive.do?r=odonata_morocco
Publication date of data: 2022-06-08
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2019-07-05
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
Taybi, A. F., Mabrouki, Y., Berrahou, A., Sbaa, M., Brochard, C., 2019. New data on the dragonfly fauna of the Moulouya River Basin and the Oriental Region, Morocco (Odonata). Arxius de Miscel·lània Zoològica, 17: 85-108, Doi: https://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2019.17.0085 https://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2019.17.0085