| Summary: | Aeshna viridis, a dragonfly generally considered to be a specialist as it in most cases choosesStratiotes aloides as its habitat, have suffered badly from habitat loss and fragmentationsthroughout Europe under the last century as the human demand of land use have grown. It´sthereby considered near threatened on EU red list and is included in the Habitat Directive.This means that it is protected by EU law as all EU Member States is committed to protect,monitor and report back to EU the status of the species. Several European countries havedesigned protection plans for S. aloides to improve the preservation of A. viridis. My study inSouth and Central Sweden shows that the strong connection between A. viridis and S. aloidesmay not be consistent all over the distribution range of A. viridis, as my survey showed thatlarvae occur among other water plants when S. aloides is not present. Another aim in thisstudy was to evaluate the possibility to use occurrence data on A. viridis and S. aloides fromthe Species Observations System to monitor A. viridis distribution and dispersal. My studyimplies uncertainties of how well the datasets reflects reality and more research is necessarybefore clarifying if datasets could be a possible tool in conservation management of A. viridis.
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