Rosser W. Garrison, Natalia von Ellenrieder, and Jerry A. Louton
The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD
2006; 368 pages
Price: $99 Hardcover,
ISBN: 0-8018-8446-2 

In recent years, comprehensive keys for the Odonata occurring in the United States and Canada have been published (Westfall and May 1996, Needham et al. 2005). Along with a number of field guides (Dunkle 2000, Curry 2001, Manolis 2003, Nikula et al. 2003, Acorn 2004, Lam 2004, Abbott 2005, Beaton 2007), this has lead to an explosion of interest in the Odonata. One geographical area that has seen little attention is the Neotropics, with only a few books of relatively limited scope written on Central America (Förster 2001), Costa Rica (Esquivel 2006), and Brazil (Lencioni 2005, 2006) available. Garrison, von Ellenrieder, and Louton have filled this very important gap and they have done so with a resource that will certainly stand the test of time.

Donnelly (2006) wrote that the Dragonfly Genera of the New World is the most important odonate book published in several years and I agree with him. Workers north of Mexico will probably not find it a necessary reference because of the numerous resources available to them, but for anyone working in Latin America, this book is a must-have. There have been precious few resources available for odonatologists working in the New World Tropics to identify taxa. In Central America, the standard has been Calvert’s (1901-1908) Biologia Centrali Americana. Förster (2001) provided an update of this treatise by compiling more recent keys and figures from the literature and South America has remained untouched until even more recently. The only comprehensive work for South America is Heckman (2006), which contains keys for larvae and adults of known species, but it is largely a compilation of the published literature.

Garrison et al. have used their vast collective expertise in the tropics to assemble this work, which “attempts to provide keys to adults, supported by abundant illustrations, to genera of dragonflies (suborder Anisoptera) from anywhere in the New World.” Given that the New World tropics support some 1,650 of odonata species in 195 genera, about 30% of the world’s total, this is no small accomplishment. The authors state that the closest areas in number of species are continental Southeast Asia, with 959 species, and Indonesia, with 673 species.

The authors have produced original keys that are richly illustrated, helping users as they move through the task of identifying specimens. The authors note that Borror’s (1945) keys to the New World Libellulidae influenced their work, but that the keys were often “out of date, long, and contorted.” They used the DELTA (Description Language for Taxonomy, Dallwitz et al. 2000) key-generating feature and were able to reduce many of Borror’s keys, using many of the same characters and states, by two-thirds, with no loss of resolving power and a great increase in their usability. Anyone who has used a key knows that you are often left with many questions rather than one answer. The authors have done an exemplary job in creating and illustrating these keys so that the questions are minimized.

The authors start out with a brief but adequate eight-page introduction to key morphological features, which are well illustrated. This chapter contains information on basic morphology, construction of the keys, techniques for collecting and preserving specimens, and a very useful section on the main repositories for New World Odonata collections, including private collections. This is followed by a key to the seven families of dragonflies found in the New World. Each chapter focuses on a family, or in the case of the Libellulidae, the group is broken into three chapters, each representing a subfamily. The authors introduce all seven Anisoptera families found in the New World with a brief summary of their world distribution, the number of genera and species found in the New World, a list of diagnostic characters supported by figures and significant references, and finally a comment on the status of classification, again supported by references.

Each of the 124 dragonfly genera found in the New World are described and discussed in detail, often with ample figures, to help the reader recognize the defining characters of the group. Each genus is also accompanied by a map showing its full distribution, and a list of species in that genus, including known synonymies and type reference. Key references are given for each genus, along with a short description, unique characters, status of classification, potential for new species, and comments on known habitat preferences. I found the addition of information like Generotype designation and references to species with larval descriptions especially useful.

The back of the book contains 27 pages of references and a well-constructed Distribution Table listing genera by country for quick reference. There is a list of the over 1,600 figures contained throughout the text. The center of the book contains eight color plates with photographs of 24 species. Each of these resources adds to the overall value of the book. An erratum of known errors is available at http://www.odonatacentral.org/index.php/PageAction.get/name/DragonflyGen....

Garrison, von Ellenrieder and Louton have produced an outstanding volume that will be a long-standing contribution to the odonatological community. I am looking forward to the volume on damselflies on which the authors are currently working.

 

References

Abbott, J.C. 2005.Dragonflies and damselflies of Texas and the South-central United States. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Acorn, J. 2004.Damselflies of Alberta: flying neon toothpicks in the grass. The University of Alberta Press, Edmonton.

Beaton, G. 2007.Dragonflies and damselflies of Georgia and the Southeast. University of Georgia Press, Athens.

Borror, D. J. 1945.A key to the new world genera of Libellulidae (Odonata). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 38: 168-194.

Calvert, P.P. 1901-1908.Odonata, In: Biologia Centrali Americana: Insecta Neuroptera, R.H. Porter and Dulau Co., London.

Curry, J.R. 2001.Dragonflies of Indiana. Indiana Academy of Science, Indianapolis.

Dallwitz, M.J., T.A. Paine and E.J. Zurcher. 2000.Principles of interactive keys. Web-based document http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/

Donnelly, T.W. 2006.Book review: Dragonfly Genera of the New World. Argia 18: 21-22.

Dunkle, S.W. 2000.Dragonflies through binoculars: a field guide to dragonflies of North America. Oxford University Press, New York.

Esquivel, C. 2006.Dragonflies and damselflies of Middle America and the Caribbean. Editorial INBio, Heredia, Costa Rica.

Förster, S. 2001.The dragonflies of Central America exclusive of Mexico and the West Indies: A guide to their identification. Gunnar Rehfeldt, Wolfenbüttel, Germany.

Heckman, C.W. 2006.Encyclopedia of South American Aquatic Insects: Odonata-Anisoptera. Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Lam, E. 2004.Damselflies of the Northeast. Biodiversity Books, Forest Hills, NY.

Lencioni, F.A.A. 2005.Damselflies of Brazil: An illustrated identification guide, 1 – Non-Coenagrionidae families. All Print Editora, São Paulo, Brasil.

Lencioni, F.A.A. 2006.Damselflies of Brazil: An illustrated identification guide, 2 – Coenagrionidae. All Print Editora, São Paulo, Brasil.

Manolis, T. 2003.Dragonflies and damselflies of California. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Needham, J.G., M.J. Westfall and M.L. May. 2000.Dragonflies of North America. Revised edition. Scientific Publishers, Gainesville, FL.

Nikula, B.J., L. Loose, and M.R. Burne. 2003.A field guide to dragonflies and damselflies of Massachusetts. Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, Boston.

Westfall, M.J. and M.L. May. 1996.Damselflies of North America. Scientific Publishers, Gainesville, FL.

John C. Abbott
Texas Natural Science Center
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX
E-mail: jcabbott@mail.utexas.edu

American Entomologist
Vol. 54, No. 1, Spring 2008