Preface

With the successful Eleventh International Symposium of Odonatology (Trevi, Perugia, Italy, August 18-25, 1991), the Societas Internationalis Odonatologica (SIO) celebrated its second decade (1971-1991). For this significant event the organizers chose a very special location: Trevi is a small country village founded in the Middle Ages, where the atmosphere of many centuries ago is still preserved in the style of the streets, buildings and several local traditions. At Trevi the participants could enjoy that genuine, though somewhat ignored, Italy in which the stranger is still held as a true guest and hence induced to relax. Under these conditions the 11the Symposium could be truly successful, and was. The youthful, twenty-year-old SIO was displayed in full vigour, tackling a wide diversity of both investigative and management topics. It also became clear that, whatever developments the future may hold, the SIO intends to go on promoting and co-ordinating odonatological research, both by the publication of periodicals and serials and by the organization of international and local symposia. Despite the difficult logistical operation of conducting the symposium in the small village the meeting was fully successful, due to the substantial help offered by Salvatore Carfi, Elisabetta Falchetti and Gianmaria Carchini, together with local administrators and minor or major sponsors and moral support from countless friends, among whom Carlo Belfiore and Janny van Brink deserve special mention. Also unforgettable is the affectionate help by Luciano Velli, who proved himself much more than a wise adviser, by Lillino Gaudenzi, local helper in Trevi untimely left, and by Clara and Antonio Falchetti, my parents in law, who allowed the uproar of the Symposium Secretariat to get possession of their house in Trevi.