Online Resources

Recommended Web Pages and Blogs

When it’s too cold or too wet to go out looking for odonates, the next best thing is reading (or writing) about them! Here are some great sites that hold a wealth of information for beginners and veterans alike, chiefly covering the odonata of the Great Lakes area as well as the northeast.

Citizen Science Sites and Online Databases

• Odonata Central – For dragonflies and damselflies of the Americas
• iNaturalist – For all flora and fauna of the globe

Scientific Publications

• Updated Checklist of the Odonata of Canada, 2024 – a paper published by Zootaxa, a peer-reviewed international journal devoted to systematic zoology 
• Ontario Odonata – The TEA publication providing seasonal summaries of odonata records for the years 1999 to 2005

Regional Websites

• Dragonflies & Damselflies of New Brunswick
• Maine Damselfly and Dragonfly Survey
• Vermont Damselfly and Dragonfly Atlas
• Ode News – Dragonflies and Damselflies of Massachusetts
• New Jersey Odonata Survey
• Maryland Biodiversity Project: Odonata
• Minnesota Dragonfly
• Wisconsin Odonata Survey
• Wild About Illinois Damselflies and Wild About Illinois Dragonflies

Local Pages and Sites

• A Checklist of the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Ottawa-Gatineau (2008). by Bob Bracken and Christina Lewis
• A Checklist of the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Kingston. by the Kingston Field Naturalists
• Trail & Landscape Publications. This OFNC regional publication has started publishing some of its special interest articles online, including the Dragonfly Species Profile series started by Chris Traynor
• Renfrew County – list of species and flight times. There is a second chart sorted by earliest flight dates to latest.
• Hastings County: Photo list of odonata species, along with photos of select species’ exuviae and emergence
• Toronto Entomologists’ Association (TEA), an organization devoted to all insects in the province of Ontario, not just Toronto!

Blogs

• Eastern Canada Odes by Mark Dennis. Covers Quebec and Nova Scotia. Although it no longer appears to be updated it contains a wealth of information.
• Tangled Web by Joe Bartok. Covering all aspects of wildlife, Joe is an active naturalist (and iNaturalist) in Tweed, ON where my grandmother used to live. This blog is no longer updated but has many posts dedicated to odonata.

Supplies

Canadian resources for dragon-hunting equipment and other nature supplies:

Atelier Jean Paquet Inc. – a Quebec-based company that has been manufacturing entomological supplies since 1998. I recently purchased a second net here to keep in Nova Scotia.

Pelee Wings – this gem located just outside of Point Pelee National Park in Ontario is a nature lover’s dream. They sell binoculars and field guides and much, more more. Try calling them if you need a loupe; I have seen them in the store though not on their website. They even have a live camera view of Lake Erie!

DIY Home-made Net Instructions: From an Ontario couple – includes suggestions on where to source materials. Instructions on how to capture dragonflies are included!