Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West
By Dennis Paulson – (2009)
535 pages; gloss art paper, with 860 colour photographs, 38 monochrome illustrated plates & 12 tables.
Soft Cover: 21.5cm x 14cm
ISBN: 978-0-691-12281-6
Princeton University Press, New Jersey
I love the cover photo of this great book of two males, Orthemis discolor and O. ferruginea peacefully rested sharing the same reed stem – all up, in this first informative volume of a two part series, a total of 348 species are covered known to occur in western USA and Canada, more than half of the total known for all North America (north of Mexico) of 457 species.
The opening pages include notes on odonate life cycle ecology, odonates physical colour application and diversity, global warming and the quality odonates provide as visual indicators of water quality and of environmental disturbance and health, rather helpful hints on odonate photography, and a nice warm invitation and encouragement to the general public to become involved in odonate research and steps how to go about that. The species are well described with very helpful notes of physical descriptions, identification traits separating closely related species, natural history, habitat, flight season, distribution both locally and globally accompanied by at least one excellent colour photograph most have 2-3 photos while many have 4-6.
Not only is this a lavishly illustrated odonate field guide, it is also a great instrument of education and encouragement for odonate enthusiasts and the general public to become involved in odonate research and conservation. It is packed full of excellent (860) colour photographs and very useful illustrated technical plates which further enhance this marvelous book and although the text has been simplified to appeal to the domestic odonate enthusiast, it is also very useful to the professional entomologist and any students of biology and entomology and no doubt should be on the book shelves of all naturalists.
Rod Rice
Principal Reviewer
Nature & Travel Books