Dragonflies & Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland (2014 edition)

Before 2014 this beautifully illustrated, pocketable field guide had not been updated for a decade which, given that three revised editions had been released in the seven years following its initial appearance in 1997, was a chasmic period of time. Ten years represents a massive duration in the dragonfly world and, unsurprisingly, there have been substantial changes to British and Irish Odonata since the last edition was published in 2004.

It was therefore pleasing to see a fully revised edition of Dragonflies & Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland hit the shelves in 2014. Steve Brooks of the Natural History Museum and Steve Cham of the Dragonfly Recording Network have done a fine job of comprehensively updating the species texts, distribution maps and flight periods. This has involved the inclusion of two additional species (bringing the total covered to 57) as well as making significant revisions to the text species that have shown significant expansions since the last version was produced. These include Small Red-eyed Damselfly, which is now a widespread breeder in the south and south-east, and dragonflies such as Large White-faced Darter, Southern Migrant Hawker and Vagrant Emperor, which are all becoming (or potentially becoming) much more regular occurrences here. There are also a significantly greater number of illustrations within the species accounts, giving greater detail and consequently aiding the identification process even more efficiently.

The already-excellent introductory section of the book has been improved and expanded, with ten additional sites included in the 'Regional Guides' part. A greater number of photographs, the majority by Steve Cham, has been included which illustrates and complement the text gratifyingly.

The fruit of Richard Lewington's extraordinary artistic talent is prevalent throughout the book. Lewington's ability to depict insect life accurately and realistically is well known; his work in other British Wildlife Publishing titles (butterflies, moths, micro moths and bumblebees) has been widely appreciated and it is no different here. Not wanting to detract anything from the two Steves' work on maintaining the fantastic texts of Dragonflies & Damselflies but, for me, it is really Lewington's illustrations that make this book stand out as an ID guide.

Previous versions of Dragonflies & Damselflies have been much celebrated; indeed, the 2002 edition was shortlisted for the Natural World book prize that year. After a dynamic ten years in which there was great change for the status of many British dragonflies, it's excellent to see a comprehensively updated, accurate and beautifully presented new edition released. There can be no question that this is the essential field guide for any British and Irish odonatologist.