Book Review: Damselflies of Brazil: An Illustrated Identification Guide. 1-The Non-Coenagrionidae Families, by Frederico A.A. Lencioni; All-Print Editora, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Reviewed by Fred SaintOurs and Anna N. Santos
With the flurry of dragonfly and damselfly identification guides published in the last few years it is appropriate that one finally be produced for a region that possibly contains the greatest diversity of insects and freshwater fauna in the Western Hemisphere. Brazil, which claims one fifth of the world’s freshwater fish species and an equally sizeable proportion of the world’s freshwater runoff, has a rich variety of Odonata that is being explored at a relatively slow pace due to political barriers to biological exploration, not to mention the difficulty in covering such a large geographic area where access and the terrain itself can be very difficult (don’t forget the spiders, anacondas, and jaguars — oh my!)
Despite the many setbacks to scientific advancement, we now have at our disposal the first volume of “Damselflies of Brazil”. This is the result of a decade of work by Frederico Lencioni, who has been tirelessly reviewing material gathered with the help of a long list of premier Odonatologists including Rosser Garrison, Ken Tennessen, Dennis Paulson, Angelo Machado, and others. The 332-page hardcover manual is written in English, with a Portuguese section covering the full text minus the illustrations. It includes over one thousand diagnostic drawings, almost one third of which are Lencioni’s original handiwork. Damselfly morphology is well described with three pages of large and clearly labeled illustrations, followed by a key to the ten families of Zygoptera found in Brazil including Coenagrionidae, which will be the subject of Volume 2. The family key is based on brief descriptions making it very easy to follow and many of the illustrations are labeled with text, unlike most keys that use only pointers.
The bulk of the book is divided into subsections each with a brief description of a Zygoptera family, followed by a key to genera with notes on habitat, behavior, and appearance. Within each family section, species pages covering a total of 153 described species provide information on the original description, type locality, synonymy, distribution by country and by region within Brazil, and whether the larvae have been described. Not surprisingly the majority have not (according to the author only 13% of Brazilian Odonata larvae have been described), which leads us to conclude that there is a great deal of work ahead for some adventurous grad students talented in dragonfly husbandry Each species page includes one to several clear and well-labeled diagrams, the majority being enlargements of caudal appendages and very well done. Curiously there seems to be quite a bit of empty space in some diagram boxes, and even a few empty pages, perhaps due to restrictions in the formatting of the book. The upside is that it provides space to include personal notes and drawings. What is lacking are distribution maps, though with so few records for many of the species it is undoubtedly a very difficult task to map their distribution in any meaningful way.
Overall the book is well organized which makes it easy to locate information quickly. One improvement though would have been to include the family name on each species page to avoid backtracking. At the end of the English section is an extensive bibliography listing 120 papers ranging from the 1800s to present day, it is a wealth of valuable references to literature on neotropical Odonata. Finally, the two glossaries, one in English and one in Portuguese, contain 156 entries which we found to be extremely invertebrate anatomy. One negative aspect of this manual is the lack of pretty pictures. With such vivid color and variety found in Brazil in families like Polythoridae and Protoneuridae, it seems a shame not to include at least a few color plates. However this reassures the shutterbugs out there that there is still plenty of work to be done, and the author himself is working towards building a photo collection in an effort to produce a picture-based guide that is more appropriate for “hands-off” field use. Despite it being largely intended for use with preserved specimens, and the difficulty in getting permission to collect insects, “Damselflies of Brazil” will provide a much-needed boost to the exploration of South American Odonata. Good work, Fred! We’re looking forward to Volume 2
The book “Damselflies of Brazil: An Illustrated Identification Guide. 1-Non-Coenagrionidae Families”, by Fred Lencioni, is available for the sale in the internet (www.zygoptera.bio.br). The price is US$ 60.00 + shipping. This is the first publication which provides the means to identify all described species of Zygoptera found in Brazil, the book is hard cover; (17.5 cm x 24 cm); 332 pages (90 gin couché paper); English text with a section in Portuguese; 6 pages on damselfly morphology; keys for families and genera; 1044 diagnostic drawings of the 153 non-coenagrionidae species (more than 300 are original drawings). Each species is on a single page with: data on original description; data on imago (if male and female are described); synonymy; type locality; where the types are housed; distribution in South America and Brazil; data on larvae (described or not and where); data on revision. There is a glossary with 156 entries in English and Portuguese (in Portuguese with the English word or expression) and Bibliography with 120 papers.
Published in Argia 2005 17(3) : 40-41