Sixty new dragonfly and damselfly species from Africa (Odonata)

Man knows just one fifth of the nine million species of animal, plant, fungus and protist thought to inhabit our planet. Dragonflies and dam. selflies are regarded as well-known, however. Nevertheless we describe 60 new species, the most to be named at once in 130 years, adding one to every twelve species known in Africa. Each species is colourful and can often be recognised even from a photograph, showing that not all unknown life is indistinct and concealed. The species' beauty and sensitivity can raise awareness for the densest and most threatened biodiversity: freshwater covers less than one percent of Earth's surface, but harbours ten percent of animal species, of which a third may be at risk of extinction. Most of them, like dragonflies, are insects. They are popular indicators of habitat value and quality, but without a name cannot be added to the IUCN Red List. As habitats are rapidly disappearing, more exploratory and descriptive research is needed, support for which has waned. Nature, natural historians and the archives of life they build together are all under threat: our 60 new species are therefore as much an act of desperation as urgency.