Dragonflies: Magnificent Creatures of Water, Air, and Land (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300197082)

A gorgeous tribute to the magic and mystique of dragonflies, with intimate photographs of their entire life cycle

Almost without our noticing, dragonflies dart through our world, flying, seeing, hunting, mating. Their lives are as mysterious as their gossamer wings are beautiful. In this book Pieter van Dokkum reveals many of the dragonfly's secrets, capturing the stages of this striking insect's life cycle in unprecedented close-up photographs. He documents scenes of dragonfly activity seldom witnessed and rarely photographed.

The book begins on a moonlit summer night, when an alien-looking larva crawls out of the water and transforms into a fully formed dragonfly. In the following chapters we witness dew-covered dragonflies sparkling in the morning sun, then a pair of mating dragonflies moving through the air in a twelve-legged, eight-winged dance. In the final chapter, one generation dies as the next prepares to leave the water and begin its own winged journey. Each stage is documented through van Dokkum's inquisitive lens and accompanied by information on various species of dragonflies and damselflies, their metamorphosis, and their ecological importance as insect predators.

Author: Pieter Van Dokkum
ISBN-10: 030019708X
ISBN-13: 9780300197082
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/31/2015
Pages: 176
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 7.99h x 10.50w x 0.70d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 02/15/2015 pg. 127
Booklist 03/01/2015 pg. 9