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The study of dragonflies has progressed significantly since the inception of this website in September 1996. Our goal was to present digital scans of living dragonflies at resolutions that had never been seen before. At the time there were few images of these fascinating insects available to the on-line user and most were low resolution due to worries about copyright infringement and long download times. Those days are long past and the web abounds with beautifully illustrated pages of dragonflies from across the world. Field guides have proliferated and include a national guide as well as many that cover regions of the United States and Canada. European and Asian authors, especially in Japan, have produced detailed books on the Odonate fauna of their country.

Although the original mission of the Digital Dragonflies website continues, it will expand to support the publication of our new book from Texas A&M University Press entitled 'A Dazzle of Dragonflies'. This website has drawn many questions from readers over the years and while we try to answer each individually, it was apparent to us that a book providing general information on dragonflies, as opposed to being a field guide, would be a useful contribution. We present introductory chapters on the history of dragonflies in human culture, prehistoric dragonflies, dragonfly biology and ecology. Our book is also meant to engage readers with dragonflies and provides a number of ways to do this. Chapters on dragonfly watching, photography, collecting, rearing, scanning and water gardening are presented.

Questions, comments and corrections of general interest will be posted in the Frequently Asked Questions and Questions From Readers sections linked at the top of the navigation bar to the left. It is our goal to keep the information in the book reasonably current and we will do our best to continue to handle all questions that come our way. Write to us at info at dragonflies .org.

Web Site Sponsored by The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
Copyright 1996 by Forrest L. Mitchell