[Odonata-l] A new book - Neurobasis and Matronoides - the birds of paradise among Odonata

[Matti Hamalainen]

Dear all,

New dragonfly books are appearing at an extraordinary rate. Most of these 
are regional guides covering the fauna of areas ranging from whole 
continents to single small Counties or nature reserves. These books usually 
cover all Odonata, or one of the two suborders, or a family as in the 
German book series ‘Die Libellen Europas’.  

For more than a hundred years there has been a tradition of publishing 
lavishly illustrated and focussed books on charismatic butterfly groups:  
Ornithoptera, Troides, Morpho, Parnassius, Delias and Adelpha, to name but 
a few. By contrast there has never been a specialized book on a single 
conspicuous, tropical dragonfly group.

Now we are pleased to introduce a pioneer product in this field: “The 
Metalwing Demoiselles (Neurobasis and Matronoides) of the Eastern Tropics: 
Their identification and biology” written by us and published by Natural 
History Publications (Borneo) in 2007.  The book deals with all aspects of 
the systematics and biology of two calopterygid damselfly genera, 
Neurobasis and Matronoides, inhabitants of the Oriental region, Wallacea 
and New Guinea.  Many odonatologists, who have seen these colourful winged 
insects in field, rank them among the most beautiful of all odonates.

A brochure of the book showing 8 sample plates (in reduced resolution) is 
available at
http://korento.net/metalwing_demoiselles.html

As authors we refrain from passing judgement on the merits of the book, but 
so far we have received only very positive and enthusiastic comments of 
those colleagues who have seen it.  

If we wish to see similar specialized books on other tropical odonate 
groups being published in future, publishers must become convinced that 
there is a market for them. This applies equally to their willingness to 
publish cheap popular guidebooks, so needed to advance knowledge of 
tropical Odonata and promote their conservation, as the success of flagship 
volumes such as this one tends to have positive knock-on effects. In this 
only you, the potential buyers can help. We note in passing that we as 
authors receive no royalties for any sales, nor have received any payment 
for our efforts.

The quickest and cheapest ($ 76 + $ 20 for shipping with DHL Express to US) 
way to get the Metalwing book is to order it from the publisher at
http://www.nhpborneo.com/main.htm

Other, much more expensive, options to purchase the book are also available 
on the internet. 

Bert Orr and Matti Hämäläinen