Dragonflies from northern Syria

Abstract Nineteen stations distributed across the northern part of Syria were inventoried for dragonflies between 2006 and 2010. About 37 species were recorded, and four species are added to the list of known Syrian species. Because of a generalized decrease in the water quality of Syrian rivers, and an increasing number of rivers falling dry, lotic species such as the calopterygids have suffered and the remaining populations have become reduced to disjunct islands. Calopteryx splendens hyalina, once extending from Lake Hula to the Wadi Afrin, now appears to have become extinct in the Orontes valley, and only survives in few short Syrian coastal rivers.