Strengths: Excellent for IDs, brilliant for anyone wanting to learn more about Odonata.
Weaknesses: The larvae key is perhaps a little too simplified - minor detail though!!

If you are only going to buy one book about Dragonflies then this should be it.
It's aimed at anyone who has an interest in Odonata, no matter if you are an enthusiast or just getting into the subject, this book is an excellent addition to your wildlife library.

The book is packed with excellent images that form the identification plates for every UK species of Odonata as well as some vagrant and migrant species.
The text is clear and easy to understand, giving a full description, flight periods, distribution maps, habitats etc....

In addition to all this it has a stunning ID key that focuses on key markings on various parts of Dragonflies and Damselflies, add to this the ultimate guide to separating and IDing those little blue damselflies and you have everthing you need to confidently identify any Dragonfly or Damselfly that you are ever likely to see in this country.

Go out and get a copy, you will not be disappointed

Two new species of dragonfly are the 'rock-and-roll' insect stars of a lavishly illustrated field guide to the high-energy aerial predators published by WildGuides in association with English Nature this week.

Dragonflies are the birdwatchers' insect - dramatic high-energy flying predators. Easy to spot - just walk near water from June to August on a warm day and they will perform an impressive fly-past.

This is the first time photographs of three new discoveries - the Southern Emerald Damselfly, Willow Emerald Damselfly and the Large White-faced Darter - have appeared in a field guide to Britain's dragonflies - making it the must-have book for all dragonfly devotees.

One of the book's authors, professional ecologist and field naturalist Andy Swash, explains: "Dragonflies are great insects to study. They have a fascinating life-style, are beautiful, easy to observe and completely harmless to humans. I fell in love with them when I worked as a nature warden and I hope the great photographs in this book inspire other people to go and have a look."

The largest, the blue-and-green Emperor Dragonfly - 78mm long with a wingspan of over 100mm - is quite common and inhabits ponds and lakes. The longest at 84mm is the distinctive black and yellow Golden-ringed dragonfly, that hunts for food amongst bracken, heather and gorse and breeds in rivers on boggy heathland.

At almost a third of its size, the Small Red Damselfly is shorter than a matchstick at just 31mm. It is reluctant to fly in any but the warmest, sunniest and calmest conditions reflecting its Mediterranean origins.

The book, Britain's Dragonflies, by Dave Smallshire and Andy Swash, covers all 57 species recorded in Great Britain and Ireland. It also predicts the ten species most likely to arrive from Europe perhaps as a result of global warming. The 168-page hard-backed book carries full colour photographs and is designed to encourage people to take it into the field and identify them. The text includes practical advice on conservation.

In the last 40 years Britain has lost three species of dragonfly and almost a third of the rest are threatened with extinction.

English Nature is channelling �30,000 over the next three years into conserving the most vulnerable dragonfly - the beautiful azure blue Southern Damselfly. This Red Book species is found at about only 60 sites in southern England and Wales and is a UK BAP Priority Species and you even need a licence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to handle it. Another �30,000 supports the work of the British Dragonfly Society.

English Nature entomologist Jon Webb said: "We've made great leaps forward in our understanding of Southern Damselflies and as a result this rare dragonfly is now holding its own in the south of England. We manage most of the sites to keep the bushes and small trees away from the waterside as dragonflies need a wide area in direct sunlight to hunt and fly."

For more information, including how to order, visit the relevant page of the website. Proceeds from the book, priced �15, will go to the British Dragonfly Society. The book will be on display at our new stand at Gardeners World Live at Birmingham NEC Wednesday 16 to Sunday 20 June.

This is a must have Identification Guide for dragon lovers.

It is crammed with superb ID tips - at times possibly too crammed. But if any ingenue needs to confirm which beast they've just seen, they should not fail with this latest in the WILDGuides series. With the most extensive cross-referencing between the various sections it would be difficult not to pin down what you've just observed.

In the individual species accounts there is a montage of photographs on the RH of the double page each receives. The authors have quite well overcome the problems of depicting beasts with mostly transparent wings against a background. As they readily admit, it is somewhat more difficult than it was in the earlier WG book on Butterflies.

It has all the introductory chapters expected; Biology, Life-cycle, Habitats, and a later Glossary. Then, before the species accounts, 16 pages of the most comprehensive Identification details.

The first few describe the various ,'families' and types, lavishly illustrated with colour photos. Then, to my mind, the real meat: 4 double-page spreads with diagrams in colour of abdomens; thoraces; eyes; wings; legs; and much more. These show Male Damsels; Female Damsels; Male and Female Hawkers and others; and Male and Female Chasers, Skimmers, and Darters. All are superb. Key features are shown in red text.

A later chapter deals with larvae and exuviae - again with many photos and diagrams. Using special pleading, the photo of a Leucorrhinia dubia exuvia only just shows the normally diagnostic three stripes on the underside. But, as elsewhere in the book where necessary, the authors moderate their comments with the sensible qualifier "usually".. I have numbers of exuviae where you would be seriously challenged to see any stripes at all.

Each species account has a comprehensive text on identification, egg and larva, behaviour, breeding habitat, population, conservation, a map of distribution (necessarily rather small), flight period, where to find, and most useful, observation tips. On the opposite page you get 5 or 6 photos showing both sexes (some in naughty poses) and different ages.

After the UK breeding species, similar treatment is given to extinct, vagrant, new colonists, and the exciting possible new colonists.

Is it perfect? Not quite. There are the odd typos: p78 "hoards" (="hordes"!); "coloration" (though the OED says this is a good English word, I much prefer "colouration"; oh the joys of an American Microsoft spellchecker!). Possibly most heinous of all (to me) is on p52 - "the Gower". As a Gower boy, born and bred, it is simply "Gower", despite what the OS will have you believe. But these are very picky points.

Should you buy it? - YES.

Do I take it to show to my field trip participants? - YES.

And I bring it home to read again and again.

Some of the profits from sales will go to the BDS. What more do you need? Buy it and rejoice.

Tim Beynon

The British dragonfly fauna is relatively small with only approximately 40 breeding species, a number not too dissimilar to the British butterfly fauna. Seemingly countless books on the butterflies have been published and yet just a handful on the dragonflies. For most of the 20th century Cynthia Longfield's book in the Wayside and Woodland series (first published in 1937 and revised in 1949) was about the only volume available to the dragonfly enthusiast. In 1977 that changed when Cyril Hammond's The Dragonflies of Great Britain and Ireland was published by Curwen Press. Since then the popular interest in dragonflies has apparently increased not least thanks to the number of birders turning their hand to insect spotting. Consequently the number of identification guides has started to increase correspondingly. The "WILDGuide" is the latest offering into this expanding market and probably will compete in the market place against the Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland by Steve Brooks and published by British Wildlife Publishing in 1997.

The innovative feature of the new guide is the use of the latest digital image technology to create photographic montages for each species. These plates include photographs of males and females, immature and colour forms all set onto a natural background. At a glance therefore the different forms that each species make take is there for the observer to assist in identification. The quality of the individual photographs of the dragonflies is excellent however the compilation of these into a montage and the running of the image right to the edge of the page does look a little strange in some cases until you get used to it. Also putting multiple images onto one page has resulted in the individual images for different species tending to be printed at about the same size so that the contrast between say the Emperor Dragonfly and the Red-eyed Damselfly is less obvious. The plate is faced by excellent text conveniently divided into appropriate sections including key identification features and with a distribution map and observation tips.

As well as the individual species entries there are also comprehensive introductory chapters on biology and habitats, again utilising very many high quality photographs. Identification charts summarising the key features are an extremely useful tool, in this case not using photographs but detailed colour illustrations.

Identification keys to larvae and exuviae utilise illustration and photographs to good effect. The book concludes with brief summaries regarding how to watch and photograph odonata, protection under law and where to get further information and support for dragonfly study.

One of the advantages of this book is the inclusion of many vagrant species including some which as yet have not been recorded in the British Isles. The incidence of vagrants appearing on our shores seems to be increasing with species such as the Red-veined Darter and Lesser Emperor becoming apparently more regular visitors and even breeding, eg in the latter case, occurring on occasion. This facet of the book will appeal particularly perhaps to those who are looking out for such occurrences. Of course such events are also being linked to global climate change and having the means to easily identify new species and chart any subsequent colonisation of this country by them will be of great interest.

In summary this is an excellent book at a very friendly price, written and photographed by two of our top experts in the country. It has the added appeal that each sale results in a donation to supporting the work of the British Dragonfly Society. I would urge anyone with an interest in this group of insects, with the most amazing ancient pedigree, and rather sadly side-lined by many naturalists until relatively recently, to buy this book. Novice or expert it will be of great use in achieving accurate identification and in learning about the odonata. However, whether it is better to use illustrations or photographs in identification guides has divided naturalists for generations now and in this case for me Richard Lewington's illustrations in the Steve Brooks Field Guide would still be my first port of call before then turning to this book. Others will no doubt feel otherwise and this is not to detract from this excellent publication.

Finally, it is perhaps a little surprising that the philosophy behind the series of "WILDGuides" is not really explained in the book and even more surprising that the opportunity to promote other titles in the series has not been taken. Perhaps it was just false modesty on the part of Rob Still who apparently is the moving force behind the series. Look out for the others.

Ray Barnett

Unlike birds which can never be fully illustrated by photographs alone, insects are a little less variable, and tend to sit still for the camera!

Britain's Dragonflies is a masterpiece of modern photographic techniques. Digital images of male, female and immature insects are cunningly crafted into a single page using the latest digital editing technology.

An informative introduction about the life-cycle and habitats of dragon and damselflies gives way to a highly detailed section on identification with the key features of 60 British and Irish species laid out side-by-side.

This is then followed by the meat of the book - detailed individual species accounts, clearly laid out with text, including maps, flight periods and ID tips opposite a photographic plate made up of several photographs of male, female and immature insects with colour variations where appropriate. Each plate is a composite of several photographs which have been digitally blended into one single page.

I took this book out on a visit to Woorgreen's Lake in the Forest of Dean and while I didn't discover anything starting I was able to confidently pick out the Common Emerald Damselflies, Common Darters and Common Blue Damselflies with ease.

For the more adventurous there is also a section on the larvae and exuviae which even help to identify the ones that got away!

But the book doesn't stop there. Leading on from recent trends with the appearance of several Continental species which are expanding their range, it best- guesses the next species to appear and includes their details in the book as well.

So with records of Small Red-eyed Damselflies increasing again this year and Southern Emerald Damselflies putting in an appearance in Kent, watch out because with this book you could identify the first Southern Skimmer for Britain!

Identification of dragonflies and damselflies can be a problem for the non specialist with an interest in natural history. Males and females of the same species are often different colours, and those colours may change with age - all in all they can be a very confusing group! This new guide, presented in the same style as Britain's Butterflies (published in 2002 by WILDGuides), goes a very long way towards helping anyone interested in finding out more about these fascinating creatures.

A main part of the book is taken up with a series of plates comprising composite photographs of all 57 species recorded in Britain and Ireland. Each plate shows males, females and immature insects of a species, all carefully placed together in one 'photograph' superimposed on a natural looking background. This may sound odd, but it really works as the photographs themselves are excellent and clearly reproduced. My only concern about this system was that some insects are shown as life size, while others are x2 or even x1.6 life size - a little confusing until you get used to it. A real plus though, is the easy guide to the different groups of dragonflies and damselflies, aiding identification still further.

The book also contains an easy to read introduction to the biology and life cycle of these beautiful insects, plus information on the kinds of habitats that the enthusiastic dragonfly watcher can find them in. If you have an interest in this group, or simply would like to find out more about them, this is definitely a book that will enthuse you and probably even inspire you to find out more.

WILDGuides is an ethical publisher. This latest book is supported by English Nature and a contribution to the British Dragonfly Society is made for every book sold.

A good-news insect story! Not a declining butterfly nor a problematic new pest, but sightings of two damselflies new to Britain. The southern emerald damselfly has its stronghold in southern Europe, but is now starting to migrate across the channel and has been spotted in Norfolk and Kent. The willow emerald damselfly, also a continental migrant, lays its eggs in willow trees near water, unlike most species, which tend to lay their eggs on water plants. Damselflies are the delicate cousins of dragonflies, and a new guide which includes all 57 species found in the UK has details of both. Britain's Dragonflies, by Dave Smallshire and Andy Swash, costs �15, and is published by WILDGuides and English Nature.

Whenever a new field guide to British dragonflies appears, one has to ask whether it adds anything new to our ability to identify and understand our species. The group is already well served by several excellent publications, including the British Wildlife Publishing guide. Dragonflies are the second insect group to be covered in the WILDGuides series, which pioneers the use of photographic montages, made up from different views and stages of the adults, to aid their identification. This approach is a massive undertaking, requiring careful collation of many photographs that are digitally blended together. A real challenge is to ensure that the angles of highlights and shadows and backgrounds are constant on one page. On the whole, the majority of photographers are of high quality and work well together on the page.

Some readers will like this approach, others less so. A few of the photographers in the review copy were quite dark and the detail difficult to see, possibly a result of the publishing process rather than the quality of the origins.

Photographs of individuals isolated from their background are used to illustrate key morphological characters. Some of these appear to have developed strange appendages and odd coloration of the wings. The head of the Southern Damselfly on p. 21 appears to have some weird-looking digital antennae.

However, these are minor niggles in what is a clearly laid-out and very readable field guide. The key to adult dragonflies, using coloured diagrams, is one of the best of its kind and will greatly assist the newcomer to the group. The larval key is also clear and easy to use, although some of the characters would make it difficult to key out some of the damselflies to species. This publication complements other field using a more traditional approach, and will appeal to dragonfly enthusiasts.

Two Rural Development Service (RDS) ecologists have produced a stunning photographic guide to Britain's dragonflies and damselflies. For Dave Smallshire and Andy Swash, who have both studied these astonishing insects for more than 25 years, the book - Britain's Dragonflies - has fulfilled a long-term ambition.

Dave is ecology policy advisor in the RDS Technical Advice Unit and Andy is Environmental Advisor to European Wildlife Division. Their work involved providing technical advice on a wide range of ecological issues, especially the development of agri-environment schemes, biodiversity policy, and the delivery of Defra's public service agreement targets for Sites of Special Scientific Interest and farmland birds. However, their interest in wildlife doesn't stop when they leave the office...

In their spare time, Dave and Andy regularly run field events covering a range of wildlife groups in which they are acknowledged experts - particularly birds, butterflies, moths and dragonflies. Having introduced hundreds of people to the joys of dragonfly-watching over the years, they became increasingly aware of the need for a comprehensive, up-to-date field guide that was easy-to-use, written in plain language, and illustrated with the best photographs available.

So they set about designing the book, collated hundreds of photographs and drafted the text. Eighteen months later, the book was published by WILDGuides as part of its Britain's Wildlife series, in association with English Nature. The proceeds from sales will benefit dragonfly conservation through donations to the British Dragonfly Society.

Applauded

Britain's Dragonflies covers the identification of the 43 species of dragonfly and damselfly now breeding in Britain, as well as the three species which formerly bred, 11 vagrants and 10 potential additions to Britain's fauna. The book has been warmly applauded both by the hundreds of people - both beginners and experts - who have already bought copies, and in the reviews in wildlife journals. One of these reviews even concludes with the exhortation "read it and rejoice!"