The dragonflies of British Columbia, by Robert A. Cannings & Kathleen M. Stuart

254 pp., 35 figs., 9 half-tone pis., 82 maps. British Columbia Provincial Museum Handbook No. 35 (British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8V 1X4), 1977. – Price: Canadian $2.00. Paperback. The Canadian Province of British Columbia has a known dragonfly fauna of 80 species which belong to 23 genera and 9 families. Larvae of all but two species (Coenagrion interrogatum and Sympetrum madidum) are known in at least the final instar. The first checklist of the Odonata of British Columbia (F.C. WHITEHOUSE,1941, Am. Midi. Nat. 26: 488-557) has recently been comprehensively updated (G.G.E. SCUDDER, R.A. CANNINGS & K.M. STUART, 1976, Syesis 9: 143-162); and the monograph of the Odonata of Canada and Alaska has been completed (E.M. WALKER & P.S. CORBET, 1975, The Odonata of Canada and Alaska, Vol. 3. Univ. Toronto Press, Toronto). So the way is clear for an uncomplicated handbook to be produced – a situation which Robert Cannings and Kathleen Stuart have exploited effectively. The book they have produced is the second to treat the Odonata of a Canadian Province: "Les Libellules du Québec”, by Adrien ROBERT, was published in 1963 (.Bull. Sen. Faune, Queb. 1).