This ground-breaking identification guide to all the dragonflies and damselflies of Britain and Europe brings some of the top field experts in Odonata from across the continent together with Richard Lewington, widely accepted to be Europe's foremost illustrator of insects. The guide covers all of Europe, from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean basin, including western Turkey, Cyprus, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and the Azores, Canaries and Madeira.

All 160 species are described, with detailed field descriptions, notes on similar species, information on behaviour, range and status, habitat and flight season. Where necessary, simple keys and tables of similar species are provided. Distribution maps indicate species' ranges. Each species is lavishly illustrated with artworks of males and females, immatures, colour varieties, detailed side views, and close-ups of important characters. Photographs and line drawings of key features are additional identification aids.

Klaas-Douwe 'KD' B Dijkstra developed an interest in natural history as a child living in Egypt. Here he made his first observations of dragonflies as a 12-year-old, having to invent his own scientific names for them because he had no literature. The discovery of the first Anax ephippiger in The Netherlands in 1995 incited an active involvement in Dutch dragonfly work. KD was a founding member of the Dutch society for odonatology in 1997, as editor of its journal Brachytron, and co-edited and co-authored the handbook of Dutch
Odonata published in 2002. He obtained an MSc in biology at Leiden University in 1998, developing a passion for Africa during fieldwork in Uganda in 1995. As a research associate of the National
Museum of Natural History Naturalis in The Netherlands, KD has worked on the systematics and biogeography of tropical African Odonata since 2001. In 2005, he shared the Worldwide Dragonfly Association outstanding achievement award for this work.

Over almost forty years, Richard Lewington has built up a reputation as one of Europe's finest wildlife illustrators. He first became interested in butterflies as a child when he inherited a cabinet
of insects from his father. He studied graphic design at the Berkshire College of
Art, and since leaving in 1971 has specialised in natural-history illustration. His meticulous paintings
of insects and other wildlife are the mainstay of many of the modern classics of field-guide art, including Insects of Britain and Western Europe, Collins Butterfly Guide, Field Guide to Dragonflies of Britain and Europe, Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland, Pocket Guide to Butterflies of Britain and Ireland and Guide to Garden Wildlife. He was, for many years, the principal artist on the multi-volume series, The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland. He has also designed and illustrated wildlife stamps for a number of countries, including a set of ten stamps of British butterflies for Royal Mail in 2013.