Dragonflies were the first creatures to truly command the air of this earth. They are the fighter planes of the insect world, hovering easily, flying fast, and manoeuvring seemingly instantly. They are flying dragons only to flies and mosquitos, however, they can't bite or sting us.
They live in the most biodiverse areas we have, our wetlands. Many are brilliantly coloured, and, akin to birds, have fascinating territorial and courtship behaviour. This is your guide to their identification in the Ottawa area. It includes a checklist of all species known from within 50 km of Parliament Hill, and the preferred habitats of each species.
This guide is Copyright © John Sankey, 1999, under the Berne convention in order to protect the right of all to continue to use it freely. Anyone may copy, link to, or use any of it as much as they wish as long as as long as this notice of copyright and permission to copy is distributed with all copies. That's the only restriction I put on it - that it remains absolutely free to all. No one may restrict its further use in any way, by collection copyright or any other means. The courtesy of a site reference or credit is always appreciated.
