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IDENTIFICATION The
key to identifying any animal is experience. Having a
picture on your mind's eye of what to expect will
greatly enhance your chances of identifying something
with confidence. For this reason, this site provides a
large number of good quality photos of dragonflies. The
list on the left of this page are scientific names,
which are used throughout the website. If you prefer,
you can switch the menu to a list of common names.
Both are
given at the top of each species page if you get
stuck. The
number of dragonflies may at first appear quite daunting
but there
are about 17 families represented in Victoria, each
comprising species that share common characteristics. Once you are familiar
with each family the task of identification is much simpler,
since there are only up to 12 species in each, but
usually many fewer. We have provided a page
describing each family for which we have reasonable
information. Within each family there are also some
species that are very distinctive and can be
identified with ease, whilst others are rare vagrants or
restricted to certain areas. When
observing a dragonfly, make a note of its behaviour and
the habitat that it is in, plus any accompanying
species. Very little is known about the ecology of some
species and this may be helpful from a conservation
standpoint. The following
pages aim to assist you to make a start at identifying
the common species: 1.
Is it a dragonfly or damselfly? 2.
What species are commonly recorded in the Melbourne
area? (Damselflies /
Dragonflies)
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VICTORIAN
DRAGONFLIES
