Reviewed by Eleanor Colver, Conservation Officer at the British Dragonfly Society
With a price tag of £175.00 (cabidigitallibrary.org, at the time of writing) this isn’t a publication to be bought on a whim, but a worthwhile investment for those with a keen interest in Odonatology and/or freshwater invertebrate conservation.
At 539 pages long, this brick of a book contains a wealth of information; it was hard to know where to begin with this review – I can only imagine how the author must have felt beginning the book itself! That author is Professor Michael J. Samways, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of the Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He certainly has the credentials and experience to produce such a comprehensive publication on dragonfly conservation, as the author and co-author of hundreds of scientific papers and articles, and numerous books, regarding invertebrate conservation. Despite being retired from Stellenbosch University, his publication list on ResearchGate continues to grow! I must thank him for his recent talk at the British Dragonfly Society’s Spring Meeting, where he illustrated his ability to break down complex topics, such as how climate change interacts with other stressors of freshwater ecosystems, and make them digestible for a wide audience – a skill that is evident throughout the book.
The publication has a textbook layout with double column text. The beginning of each chapter is marked by delightful summary illustrations by Megan Louise Potgieter, whom you can find @meganl.potgieter on Instagram. Chapters begin with a brief abstract and end with the reference lists, which I regularly utilised to pursue studies of particular interest. Chapters are split into subsections, listed in the contents, making the text easier to consume. Sentences are short and the writing is clear and straightforward, avoiding unnecessarily complex language, which as a dyslexic I appreciate! Despite the occasional typo, I didn’t spot any glaring faux pas. Most pages feature photos exhibiting species and their habitat, or useful diagrams (by graphic illustrator Robyn Symons) that assist in visualising, understanding and remembering multifaceted topics.
This book is a co-publication by the Royal Entomological Society and CABI, so I must thank both organisations for its production. The CABI website describes the book as being “for naturalists, citizen scientists, entomologists and conservation scientists, as well as practitioners and policy makers around the world”. This is certainly a broad target audience, reflected in the breadth of the book’s content. The publication is split into eight chapters, which I have listed below, along with a brief description of their contents:
Introduction: how dragonflies and humans interact with each other and our shared environment, and an introduction to dragonfly conservation.
Dragonfly Functional Morphology: Odonata evolution, life history, and distinctive morphological traits exhibited by each life stage.
Dragonfly Diversity and Distribution: a review of the current global distribution of dragonfly diversity, population dynamics, drivers of diversification, and past and on-going range shifts resulting from climatic change.
The Trait Perspective on Dragonfly Conservation: variation within traits, morphological and behavioural, at different life stages, the factors that influence their evolution, and how traits affect how species interact with their environment, as well as competitors, predators and prey.
Stressors on Freshwater Ecosystems and Dragonflies: significant stressors of different freshwater habitats and their dragonfly assemblages, such as climate change and urbanisation, and how these stressors interact.
Dragonfly Conservation Action: principles and methods of species and site protection, restoration and recovery of standing and running freshwater habitats, and species-targeted conservation action, such as reintroductions, with real-world examples.
Freshwater Assessment and Monitoring Using Dragonflies: principals and methods of assessing and monitoring freshwater habitats and dragonflies, as well as the value and use of the resulting data, including the use of dragonfly-based indices to assess habitat quality.
Future-proofing Freshwaters and Their Dragonfly Sentinels: the value and importance of freshwater biodiversity conservation, the challenges currently faced and the urgent need for action.
The problem with trying to cater to the needs of such a wide audience is that ultimately not all the contents will appeal to readers individually. The book’s layout, however, allows readers to easily dip into particular topics of interest. The book is described as being, in part, for ‘citizen scientists’ and, the author does an excellent job at making the information accessible to a wide range of readers. However, I believe readers from an academic or professional background related to invertebrate conservation will get the most use out of this publication; it is not exactly light reading. While I had at least a basic knowledge of all the topics covered, there was certainly a wealth of new information for me to absorb and ponder – the problem is remembering it all!
Examples from around the world are used to illustrate principles of Odonatology, and dragonfly conservation in-action; for instance, the diversification of Megalagrion species on Hawai’i as an example of adaptive radiation. While my work focuses on British dragonflies, it was a nice change to learn about species that inhabit more exotic locations and it was inspiring to learn about conservation work taking place, from the agroecological approaches applied to cacao farming in Brazil, to the clearing of alien pine trees on Table Mountain, South Africa.
In summary, this book is really a first of its kind. While separate guides to freshwater conservation and dragonfly biology and ecology exist, this is the first publication to marry the two in a single bible for dragonfly conservation practitioners. Although I’m sure that in a few years’ scientific research will have moved on and some of the book’s information will become outdated, most of its contents have longevity. This book will stay close at hand on my desk during my day-to-day work at the British Dragonfly Society, where I’m sure it will remain for many years.
