Product Description

Today more than 5000 species of dragonflies and damselflies inhabit six of the seven continents. This text presents a comprehensive and accessible overview of the world's more popular insect groups, the Odonata. Written for interested amateurs as well as more experienced professionals, "Dragonflies of the World" provides information on distribution patterns, life cycles and habitat, behaviour and general appearance, as well as evolutionary history, taxonomy, and conservation efforts. The final chapter describes specific dragonfly families and subfamilies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1187208 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In the handsomely illustrated volume Dragonflies of the World, entomologist Jill Silsby and a team of colleagues introduce readers to the little-explored world of the dragonflies and their damselfly cousins, the order Odonata.

The odonates, Silsby writes, are among the oldest of the earth's living creatures, ancient even by the age of the dinosaurs. That they have survived while so many other species of the time did not hinges on several adaptations, including the development of large compound eyes, wings that move independently of one another, and a highly streamlined body shape, all of which "has made odonates superb hunting machines." Strictly carnivorous, dragonflies are also wide-ranging--some species have been known to travel across oceans--and are found in most parts of the world; one family, the Synlestidae, or sylphs, are distributed throughout southern Africa, Australia, China, and the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, but, strangely, nowhere in between. (For all its ubiquity, though, the dragonfly figures little in the world's art, literature and mythology.) But all 6,000 species of dragonflies depend on one habitat in particular that is becoming ever more rare: clean, usually slow-moving bodies of water. The volume closes with a consideration of conservation measures that are needed if the odonates are to survive beyond the present age, including the establishment of protected areas worldwide.

A pleasure to read and constantly informative, this compendium makes a welcome addition to any nature buff's collection. --Gregory McNamee

Dragonfly News, Spring 2002
'accessible and stimulating...readable and authoritative...over three hundred photographs of the highest quality...beautifully reproduced...don't wait; buy it.'

About the Author
Jill Silsby served as Honorary Secretary of the British Dragonfly Society for eight years, was a founding member of the Worldwide Dragonfly Association and, since its foundation in 1997, has been its Honorary Secretary and Treasurer. She is author of Inland Birds of Saudi Arabia (1995).