The Complete Field Guide to Dragonflies of Australia

Second edition

The Complete Field Guide to Dragonflies of Australia, Second Edition is another great field guide published by CSIRO. The guide describes 333 species that occur in Australia. For each of these there are descriptions, line drawings of significant characteristics, an Australian distribution map, and often colour photographs.

Importantly, there are identification keys for adults and larvae and an illustrated glossary with fine line drawings.

The field guide covers eight families of dragonflies and 10 families of damselflies, comprising the 113 genera and 333 species found in Australia.

This second edition has newly identified species and revised family names to reflect new world consensus systematics. It also includes illustrations by Albert Orr, one of the most renowned dragonfly illustrators.

Buy from: Booktopia

Authors and illustrator

Gunther Theischinger has had a lifelong interest in aquatic insects. He has published more than 300 scientific papers. Over the years, he has described more than 60 new species and several new genera of Australian dragonflies. He was a visiting scientist at the Australian National Insect Collection in Canberra, and is a Research Associate of the Australian Museum and a Visiting Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, USA.

John Hawking is an Honorary Research Fellow at La Trobe University and former invertebrate ecologist at the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre, Wodonga. He studied the ecology of dragonfly larvae for his Master’s degree. He has since published greatly on their ecology, taxonomy and conservation.

Albert Orr is a professional entomologist, writer, illustrator, consultant and scientific editor. He is a retired lecturer in ecology and invertebrate zoology, still actively researching. His main expertise is with butterflies, moths and dragonflies.