These Three Great Odonata Books Are Soon to Be Flying off the Shelves!

When we heard that artist and dragonfly-damselfly biologist Ed Lam’s book was coming out this year, we were beyond excited. It’s hard to describe to a non-odonatologist the level of community excitement about Ed’s second book (after his Damselflies of the Northeast was published in 2004) … akin to waiting for a sequel to Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, or as if Boris Pasternak came out with a part two to Doctor Zhivago. In the end, Dragonflies of North America is more beautiful than we could have imagined. Ed Lam is a professionally trained artist, and his talent is visible on each page. This book is more than a field guide to the 329 species of Anisoptera in North America, although it is also that—providing species-level insights about seasonality, geographic ranges, and diagnostic characters. Because of Ed’s awesome artistic skill, however, the 1,900 drawings and paintings featured in this book could easily be considered works of art. True to color, each painting is perhaps better than a photograph: every odonate can be compared at the same angle and with consistent dorsal and lateral images. We held some Perithemis tenera up to the painting in Lam’s book and the color was an exact match! Sized to fit in a small bag when walking near water for fun or hiking through the woods on an expedition, Lam’s book includes the basics of odonate anatomy, detailed genitalic drawings, and overviews of each family to orient the reader to the sections of interest for particular species. This will serve as an excellent companion to Ed’s other book on the damselflies of North America, encouraging odonatologists, entomologists, students, and the public to get to know these beautiful freshwater animals. McShaffrey, Spring, and McCormac have outdone themselves with their new book on the Odonata of Ohio. In this detailed,well-photographed book, the trio provides a thorough background into the natural history of Odonata, their ecological significance, and a history of surveys in Ohio. The book starts with a key for the taxa found in the state of Ohio, with detailed keys to genus and species in each family. Professor McShaffrey’s interest in color change is reflected in the inclusion of images showing the breadth of colors seen across adult life spans and with sexual dimorphism. Each species has county-level range maps, well informed by Spring’s work as state coordinator for the Ohio Dragonfly Survey, which ran from 2017 to 2022 (building upon earlier surveys from 1980 to 1990 and 1990 to 2002) and collected over 150,000 observations from about 3,900 observers! In their discussion of one of our most beloved dragonflies, Aeshna canadensis, for example, the authors describe the historical observations of this species, followed by the details of the survey expeditions that led this taxon to be placed on the endangered species list for Ohio. This guide is useful even if you are new to dragonflies and damselflies, giving an additional review of commonly confused species to prevent misidentification, while also providing details about their habitat preferences, behavior, and morphological traits. McCormac’s expertise at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for 31 years undoubtedly informed this book, which really is an ode to the odes of Ohio. Species photos are large and beautifully matte in finish, and inset with pictures of key diagnostic features. This book would serve as an excellent model that could and should be used for odonate field guides in every state! After reading and using the books from Lam and McShaffrey et al., a reader most certainly will want to learn more about the conservation of this ancient and charismatic group of insects. Look no further than what is perhaps the most comprehensive book to date focused on Odonata conservation, written by Michael J. Samways. Arranged in chapters, this book covers basic biology, functional morphology, and diversity in Odonata, but it is more than a simple textbook reviewing odonate biology. Samways does a deep dive into species assessment, freshwater stressors, and the future of freshwater conservation, discussing cutting-edge methodology in genetics, genomics, morphology, field biology, and ethology. Samways has been a leader in the study of ecology and conservation of dragonflies and damselflies for many years, developing biotic index metrics for the assessment of ode diversity and water quality. He provides an extensive glossary that includes entomological, ecological, and conservation terms of broad interest. This book will serve as a reference for us all, but especially those of us working to mitigate aquatic insect decline, for although this book is about dragonflies and damselflies, the methods, approaches, and action items will broadly appeal to anyone studying freshwater macroinvertebrates. Jessica Ware grew up in Ontario, Canada, and now lives in Cranbury, New Jersey. She is a curator and chair of the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History. She specializes in insect evolution, especially in Odonata. Ethan Tolman is from Boise, Idaho, and now lives in Blacksburg, Virginia, where he is a postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Anton Suvorov at Virginia Tech. He studies insect conservation genomics in insects, most commonly in dragonflies. Aaron Goodman is from San Francisco and now lives in New York City, NY, where he is a graduate student at the City University of New York and the Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History. He studies Odonata evolution and ecological modeling.

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