Common Dragonflies of California : A Beginner's Pocket Guide

Learn how to identify the dragonflies and damselflies you see in your yards and on your outings

- softbound (laminated cover), 96 pages

- fits in your pocket (5.75" X 4.5")

- dragonflies and damselflies included

- 77 species covered: 6 family pages with live scanned dragonflies; 58 species pages with photos; 2 pages with anatomical sketches; species paired by similarities

- sizes (including a a bold line the length of the dragonfly), descriptions, comparisons, habitats, flight periods, behavior, distribution

- includes a checklist of all CA species

- 119 color photos/scans, inc. some nymph

The book has a companion website showing ALL of California's Dragonflies with distribution maps, which are updated twice yearly. The website contains additional information on each speices and has links to CalOdes, the California dragonfly discussion group, sightings within the state, and updated flight periods as well as addtional photos of all species.

As a child Kathy Biggs, author of Common Dragonflies of California, traipsed through the fields and hills around her Bay Area homes in Alameda, San Leandro and then Alamo. She collected insects and enjoyed nature on the family's many camping outings. But it wasn't until after she & her husband moved from Pleasant Hill to Sebastopol, and they converted their swimming pool into a garden pond for wildlife that the dragonflies arrived and became her passion. Not a scientist, but a dragonfly enthusiast, Kathy taught herself in the field and by using the Internet where several scientists became her mentors. She ended up writing the book that she felt she so much needed. Now she tours the state teaching people about these amazing creatures, Earth's very first fliers.