Diversity 2021, 13, 532. https://doi.org/10.3390/d13110532 www.mdpi.com/journal/diversity Article Diversity, Status and Phenology of the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Cyprus (Insecta: Odonata) David J. Sparrow 1 , Geert De Knijf 2, * and Rosalyn L. Sparrow 1 1 Cyprus Dragonfly Study Group, PO Box 62624, 8047 Paphos, Cyprus; davidrospfo@hotmail.com (D.J.S.); dragonfliescyprus@gmail.com (R.L.S.) 2 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Havenlaan 88 bus 73, 1000 Brussels, Belgium * Correspondence: geert.deknijf@inbo.be; Tel.: +32-476-403-454 Abstract: Based on literature data, unpublished material and the results of the year-round moni- toring at selected sites island-wide by the Cyprus Dragonfly Study Group since 2013, we acquired an excellent knowledge of the diversity and status of the Odonata of Cyprus. Altogether, 37 species are on the island’s checklist. Ischnura pumilio, Aeshna affinis and Brachythemis impartita were only very rarely recorded in the past but are considered to be no longer present. The single record of Calopteryx virgo from 1930 is in our opinion a misidentification and has been removed from the checklist. The island has a rather impoverished odonate fauna compared to neighbouring coun- tries. There are no endemic species, but the island is home to some range of restricted species of which Ischnura intermedia is the most important. Flight seasons determined for the 31 species with sufficient data were generally found to be longer than reported for other countries in the Eastern Mediterranean. This may be due to intensive year-round monitoring but could also result from Cyprus’ warmer climate. Very wide annual variations were found in the abundance of all species over the seven years and show an almost immediate response to the wide fluctuations in Cyprus’ annual rainfall levels. Keywords: odonate; flight period; checklist; Eastern Mediterranean; citizen science; climate 1. Introduction Biodiversity monitoring is an essential first step in being able to track changes in ecosystems and species distributions and abundances locally and contributes to an im- portant global understanding of trends. Records collected through structured monitoring schemes, as well as opportunistic observations, can assist in developing conservation measures aimed at halting or reversing declines in species and habitat quality. Data collected through citizen science projects are increasingly important for assessing biodi- versity at global and regional scales [1]. For dragonflies and damselflies in Europe, such detailed information is only available for northern and central localities, but not in any depth for any country or the area in general in the Eastern Mediterranean [2,3]. Kalkman and van Pelt [4] published data on the distribution and flight season of species in Turkey but acknowledged that their records were not evenly distributed over the year. In the European Atlas of Odonata [5], flight season data for the Maghreb, Turkey and Greece, were included but it was stated that the data were limited since very little recording had been conducted outside the main summer holiday season. The recently published Atlas of the dragonflies and damselflies of West and Central Asia [6] also contains phenology data, which includes all species present on Cyprus. The data, however, need to be inter- preted with care since flight seasons for species for which there are few records may be longer than indicated and for widespread species may be longer than that found at any given location. Citation: Sparrow, D.J.; De Knijf, G.; Sparrow, R.L. Diversity, Status and Phenology of the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Cyprus (Insecta: Odonata). Diversity 2021, 13, 532. https://doi.org/10.3390/d13110532 Academic Editors: Luc Legal, Marina Vilenica, Zohar Yanai and Laurent Vuataz Received: 29 September 2021 Accepted: 22 October 2021 Published: 25 October 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/license s/by/4.0/).