Dragonflies of India – A Field Guide
By K.A. Subramanian – (2009)
168 pages; matt art paper, with 233 colour photographs and 67 drawings.
Soft Cover. 21.4cm x 14cm.
ISBN: 978-81-7480-192-0
Vigyan Prasar, India
What a pleasant surprise this book is compared with ‘some’ others I have read on the Indian Odonata. This book is actually very useful across the board and the content generally presented quite nicely. The introduction is very informative and enlightening for students and amateur enthusiasts and no doubt will encourage further interest in the Odonata of India and interest generally in these amazing insects.
The book is divided into two main chapters the Anisoptera (dragonflies) and Zygoptera (damselflies) and covers in total 111 species. Each species has its local common name followed by its scientific name. A good description is provided with abdomen and hind wing lengths in both males and females, data on habits, habitat, breeding sites and flight season (where known) are also provided, closing with local and global distribution. 1-2 colour photos helps to illustrate each species.
The photos are generally good quality including their print reproduction. Unluckily however, there are some photos that are a bit out of focus and or perhaps shot at low quality pixels. There is a very interesting photo of a male (damsel Indian endemic) Euphae fraseri standing backwards on top of a female, I assume he has just kidnapped her or perhaps he is just very keenly guarding her.
My only real question is with the checklist at the end of the book listing 473 species known to occur in India with no synonymous names included. In the introduction the author states, “India is highly diverse with more than 500 known species”. I have no problem as such with the checklist being incomplete, but there should be some explanation as to why that is the case.
However, that aside, this is a very useful book, not just for the Indian Odonata but also good for cross reference with other Asian literature. Further, the book itself is strongly constructed (I use mine all the time and the pages are still intact), it has a higher quality print standard and much more appropriately priced than other books on this subject published from this region and “Dragonflies of India – A Field Guide” is good value for money and certainly worth buying.
Rod Rice
Principal Reviewer
Nature & Travel Books