Meetnetten.be - Exuviae counts for dragonflies in Flanders, Belgium

Study Extent

1. Gomphus flavipes (River Clubtail / Rivierrombout) occurs in medium-sized to large rivers, preferably with sandy substrate. The habitat of the Flemish population is somewhat different as the species reproduces her in a busy canal with concrete banks (De Knijf et al. 2013). We follow up on this species by counting the larval skins.

Sampling

Sampling was done using the protocol described in De Knijf et al. (2019) and explained to volunteers in Ledegen et al. (2017). 1. Gomphus flavipes (River Clubtail/ Rivierrombout): During a count of larval skins, the riparian bank is slowly crossed over a length of 500 m and every larval skin found is collected. The location is preferably read with a GPS. Each transect is visited once every 10 days and this in the period from 1 June to 15 August (6 visits in total).

Quality Control

Data are collected using a predefined sampling protocol.

Method steps

1. Researchers from INBO and Natuurpunt Studie define and document the appropriate sampling protocol for the target species.
2. Fieldwork is planned and coordinated by Natuurpunt Studie, using https://meetnetten.be.
3. Data are collected in the field by specialized volunteers, using the predefined sampling protocol.
4. Volunteers enter the collected data in https://meetnetten.be.
5. A custom SQL view is created in the meetnetten.be database to map the original data to Darwin Core as an event core, occurrence extension and measurement or fact extension.

The target dragonfly species for Meetnetten.be are listed at https://meetnetten.be/#group-6. Other dragonflies observed during the sampling are momentarily not included. This dataset covers the larval skin protocol, for which there is 1 target species. In a later phase, when the monitoring of Gomphus vulgatissimus is operational, more data will be included.

1. Animalia
   rank: kingdom
2. Arthropoda
   rank: phylum
3. Insecta
   common name: insects rank: class
4. Odonata
   common name: dragonflies rank: order
5. Gomphus flavipes
   common name: Rivierrombout rank: species

Flanders, Belgium