[Odonata-l] new book that includes dragonflies

[Dennis Paulson]

Hello, odonatophiles.

A colleague of mine, nature writer and photographer Whit Bronaugh,  
just sent me a copy of his recently published book and asked that I  
let others know about it. I first made Whit's acquaintance years ago,  
when he sent me many dragonfly specimens from Explorer's Inn in Peru.  
His book is for naturalists, including dragonfly aficionados. It's  
called Wildlife of North America, A Naturalist's Lifelist, published  
by the University Press of Florida. The price on the cover is $29.95.  
I've seen them at several book stores in Seattle but hadn't looked  
closely at a copy before now.

The book is unusual in listing all of the dragonflies, butterflies,  
freshwater fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals of North  
America north of Mexico. It is basically a list of species, with  
common and scientific names, but it's a big book, plenty of room to  
write something for every species. Whit is a perfectionist, so he was  
e-mailing me right up to publication date to ask if there had been  
any changes in dragonfly taxonomy or common names, and I'm sure he  
has done the same for all the other groups. I know many dragonfly  
people are also broadly interested naturalists, and this seems just  
the book for us. Right now it is the only up-to-date list of North  
American Odonata in print, and you get all those other groups as a  
bonus!

Besides the list, the book has a lengthy introduction, including an  
interesting section on biodiversity and zoogeography of North  
America, with very informative maps of the number of species of each  
group in each state and province; contrasting the maps for  
butterflies and dragonflies was really instructive to me. There is  
also an appendix with recent taxonomic and nomenclatural changes. In  
this appendix, he updates the names and the taxonomy in standard  
field guides (in the case of odonates, Dragonflies Through  
Binoculars), with discussions of the reasons for the changes; you'd  
be surprised how many additional species have been recognized in  
recent years.

He also has a section on extinction and - really neat, I thought - a  
list and description of all the animals in these groups known or  
thought to have gone extinct at the end of the Pleistocene (e.g.,  
Columbia Mammoth, Northern Sabertooth, La Brea Condor, Titan  
Terrorbird, and NA Giant Tortoise), a moment ago in the history of  
our continent. As he writes, "When you see a Turkey Vulture wheeling  
about in the sky, remember that not long ago it had to share the  
spoils of a carcass with American Lions, Dire Wolves, Giant Teratorns  
and other now extinct avian scavengers." By a novel decision on his  
part, the lists include these species, although there is no record of  
Pleistocene-end extinctions of dragonflies (they apparently weren't  
hunted by the humans that poured into this continent at that time).

Anyway, this book seems like a bargain to me at $30. Even if you're  
not into listing, the introduction and appendix are unique  
contributions to an understanding of our wildlife, especially the  
vertebrates.

Sorry for all the duplicate postings to all of you on multiple lists.

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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