Odonata : Biology of Dragonflies
Contents: Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Professor Bastiaan Kiauta - an extraordinary and outstanding odonatologist/B.K. Tyagi and M.A.J.E. Kiauta. 2. Studies on neotropical protoneuridae. 20. Neoneura Kiautai spec. nov. from Southeastern Brazil (Zygoptera, protoneuridae)/Angelo B.M. Machado. 3. Three new damselfly species from Papua New Guinea (Zygoptera: megapodagrionidae, coenagrionidae)/G. Theischinger and S.J. Richards. 4. Dragonflies from the Okavango swamps (Botswana, Southern Africa) in winter/Henri J. Dumont. 5. Cordulegaster insignis (Schneider, 1845) in Bulgaria with notes on its biology and ecology/Milen Marinov, Burkhard Grebe and Yordan Kutsarov. 6. The dragonfly fauna of the Shivapuri Hills, Nepal (Odonata: zygoptera, Anisozygoptera, anisoptera)/T. Brockhaus, S.G. Butler, R.G. Kemp and G.S. Vick. 7. The composition and history of Siberian odonate fauna/A.Yu. Haritonov. 8. The dragonflies of forest-steppe in West Siberia: fauna, ecology and biology/O.N. Popova. 9. Odonata of Mexico revisited/E. Gonzalez Soriano and R. Novelo Gutierrez. 10. Odonata inventories in British Columbia, Canada: determining the conservation status of odonata species/Robert A. Cannings, Leah R. Ramsay and Sydney G. Cannings. 11. Cytogenetics of American Odonata/Liliana M. Mola. 12. Are the observed dispersal capacities in damselfly species sufficient to cope with the ongoing rapid shift of climate zones?/J. Beukema. 13. Local assemblage patterns of odonates in Central Choco, Colombian Pacific/L. Perez. D. Monroy and E. Realpe. 14. The expansion of crocothemis erythraea (Brulle, 1832) in Germany - an indicator for climatic changes/J. Ott. 15. Adaptationist approach of reproductive behaviour in Libellulidae: a case report on Diastatops obscura Fabricius/J.B. Irusta and A. Araujo. 16. Causes and costs of lamellae autotomy in damselfly larvae: a review/R. Stoks and M. De Block. 17. Endemic odonates of the Western Ghats: habitat distribution and conservation/K.A. Subramanian. 18. Dragonflies of the Madurai Kamaraj University Campus (Tamil Nadu, India)/P.L. Miller. 19. Larval and adult behavioural patterns of some odonata species from Dehradun Valley/Amit Mitra. 20. Coeliccia hoanglienensis spec. nov., a new platynemid damselfly from Hoang Lien mountains in the North of Vietnam (Zygoptera: plastinemididae)/Do Manh Cuong. 21. Observations on mating and oviposition behaviour of Tetrathemis platyptera Selys, 1878/Kiran C.G. and F.K. Kakkassery. 22. About the odonata ethnic names in the Serbian linguistic area/Milos Jovic. 23. Discovering the dragonfly wealth of Kerala - the God's own land - in South India: a travelogue/Dan Barta.
"Dragonflies (Odonata), represented by over 6000 known species, are unique insects. In more than one feature they differ, at the very first glance, from all other insect superorders including their nearest allies, the mayflies (Ephemeropteroidea). They probably evolved as early as in the Lower Devonian. Odonata are characterized by a number of extremely archaic features, have evolved but very little in the course of the past geological epochs, and are, therefore, justly considered as a kind of living fossils. The living dragonflies represent but one order (Odonata), organized in three suborders, viz., Zygoptera, Anisozygoptera and Anisoptera. Anisozygoptera are represented in the present day fauna only by two relic species, one of which is endemic to Japan and the other in India and Nepal. The Zygoptera and Anisoptera, on the other hand, are the dominant groups. Being voracious predators in both immature (aquatic) and adult (aerial) stages they are important elements of all, except the drier (or high alpine) environments in temperate and tropical regions, occupying a position at the apex of the food chain of invertebrate life. Many dragonfly species are tested biological control agents for several disease-transmitting vector mosquitoes, especially Aedes species. They are also ideal organisms to be used as indicators of water pollution and contamination. Many species serve as intermediate hosts of fluke parasites of birds, and thus are important in the transmission on parasitic diseases, especially of domestic poultry and wild ducks. Because of their unique morphology and physiology, dragonflies are used extensively in the study of many biological phenomena. All these subjects are discussed in this unique book comprising twenty three articles written by expert odonatologists from different parts of the world. The book is written in a lucid and comprehensible language, and will likely be useful to both the professional and amateur alike."
