The Complete Field Guide to Dragonflies of Australia

Günther Theischinger, John Hawking, Albert Orr

• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781486313747
• eBook ISBN: 9781486313761
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Zoology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Dragonflies and damselflies are conspicuous insects: many are large and brightly coloured. They are also valuable indicators of environmental wellbeing. A detailed knowledge of the dragonfly fauna is therefore an important basis for decisions about environmental protection and management.

This comprehensive guide to the Australian dragonfly fauna covers eight families of dragonflies and 10 families of damselflies, comprising the 113 genera and 333 species found in Australia. It has been updated with newly identified species and revised family names to reflect new world consensus systematics. Stunning full-colour images and distribution maps are accompanied by identification keys for adults as well as larvae, which are often used as bait for freshwater fish.

This second edition of The Complete Field Guide to Dragonflies of Australia also includes illustrations by Albert Orr, one of the most renowned dragonfly illustrators. The extraordinary diversity of dragonflies will interest entomologists and amateur naturalists alike.

Species guide

A field guide should give a simple but comprehensive treatment of a group of organisms and enable their identification by comparison with diagrams and photographs. At the species level this works for most groups of organisms only if the objects are reasonably large, stationary and in a position similar to the individuals in the pictures and if they display in this position enough diagnostic features for identification. This practically never happens, and it is usually necessary to collect individuals and sometimes even to use a hand-lens in order to make a meaningful identification.

Classification

In the first edition the 324 species that occur in Australia were grouped into 30 families and 112 genera. The damselflies comprised 12 families and the dragonflies proper, 18 families.

In this second edition approximately 330 species in 18 families, plus a number of genera incertae sedis, are recognised. The damselflies comprise 10 families and the dragonflies proper, eight families plus 11 genera incertae sedis.

Previous books have concentrated on the adults only. Fraser (1960) provided the first key to the adults of all then known Australian dragonfly species. Subsequent information from regional guides and taxonomic revisions was incorporated by Watson et al. (1991) in their book, The Australian Dragonflies.

Rhyothemis phyllis (female).

Regions of Australia

CY	Cape York Peninsula, north of 16ºS, and the Australian islands in Torres Strait, some of which are close to the Papuan coast.
IA	The arid areas of inland Australia, the rest of the continent, with few permanent waters, mostly pools in river beds, sometimes spring fed.
IN	The western, inland parts of New South Wales, watered by the mature, sluggish rivers of the Murray-Darling system west of the line Goondiwindi-Albury.
KIM	The Kimberley region of Western Australia, north of 19ºS, again comprising the area to which permanent streams and rivers are confined.
NEN	North-eastern New South Wales, the corresponding region north of 32ºS.
NEQ	North-eastern Queensland, the corresponding montane and coastal region between 16ºS and 23ºS, east of a line between 16ºS/143ºE and 23ºS/149ºE. There is an ecological and faunal discontinuity in the region, between about 19ºS (the Paluma Range) and 21ºS (Eungella), the so-called Paluma-Eungella gap.
NIQ	The northern parts of inland Queensland between 16ºS and 23ºS, west of a line joining 16ºS/143ºE and 23ºS/149ºE, east of 138ºE north of 21ºS, and of 141ºE south of 21ºS, and including the northern rivers draining into the Gulf of Carpentaria.
NNT	The ‘Top End’ of the Northern Territory, north of 17ºS, within which permanent streams and rivers occur.
NWA	The north-west of Western Australia, west of 121ºE to 21ºS, north-west of a line between 21ºS/121ºE and 27ºS/116ºE, and north of 27ºS to 116ºE, a primarily arid region but including the permanent streams and riverine pools of the Millstream oasis and other riverine pools.
SEN	South-eastern New South Wales, including the east-flowing rivers and the upper courses of the western rivers south of 32ºS and east of a l...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Foreword to first edition
• Foreword to second edition
• Preface and acknowledgments to first edition
• Preface and acknowledgments to second edition
• Contents
• Introduction
• Species guide
• Illustrated glossary
• Identification of adults
• Identification of larvae
• Studying dragonflies
• Checklist of species
• References and further reading
• Index of scientific names
• Index of common names