"MTY" is an abbreviation used for Monterey County. Should you obtain records that add to our information, including new sites not shown on the Species Page maps, or new early or late flight dates, please email me.

The species on this checklist have been accepted through the reviews provided at Odonata Central at the University of Texas, which hosts the official website of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas (for specimens & photo-documented records), and/or have been approved by Tim Manolis & Kathy Biggs for their mapping project on California distribution, hosted on Kathy Biggs's web pages.

Information on habitat primarily refers to Monterey County. Date spans given outside of parentheses are those documented within Monterey County, with months shown in parentheses indicating flight seasons established elsewhere in California, usually as cited by Manolis (2003). For example, American Rubyspot reads "(Feb) Apr–Oct (Nov)." This means that within Monterey County, the rubyspot has been recorded from April through October, but there are records as early as February and as late as November elsewhere in California. If there are no months in parentheses preceding or following the Monterey months listed, this means that known MTY flight dates encompass the usual California flight dates. [It should be noted, however, that early and late flight dates are being established every year, and some earlier or later dates not mentioned by Manolis (2003) have been overlooked.]

A note about the Species Pages linked to this Checklist: If the species has been photographed in MTY, every effort has been made to include one or more of those photos. Most of the photographs are mine, but I have borrowed shots from others where I did not have one, or where their photo added to the historic record. If a Species Page has photos, I sometimes include, for illustrative purposes, one or more of my own shots from elsewhere in California (these are all labeled and include the acronym for the county involved). However, if there are not yet any Monterey County photos of a particular species in Monterey, the Species Page will not include photos, even though there are plenty taken elsewhere in the State. In this way, the reader can be assured that they are viewing a collection of local MTY photos on these pages, rather than a mishmash collection on non-locals shots.

There is a more-or-less widely accepted taxonomic order for North American odonata, such as used on the Odonata Central web site, which lists genera within suborders alphabetically, and species within genera alphabetically. This means that closely related species are sometimes listed far apart. A slightly modified version is used by Manolis (2003). I have further revised that arrangement based on new molecular evidence.

There is emerging evidence, based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA studies, that Spreadwings [Lestidae] may not be damselflies [suborder Zygoptera] but may be closer the Anisozygoptera [two species of Epiophlebia in Japan and the eastern Himalayas] or even dragonflies [suborder Anisoptera]; see Saux et al. (2003), Hasegawa & Kasuya (2006). Only a few taxa have been analyzed so far, and more evidence will be necessary to make further adjustments to phylogenies. For the moment, Spreadwings are left in their traditional spot [e.g., Silsby 2001].

Mitochondrial DNA evidence can be useful at the genus and species level. Saux et al. (2003) used many common odes from California in their study, and their findings now give us a better picture of relationships. Based on their work, I have made the following adjustments to the arrangement in Manolis (2003):

• placed the Desert Firetail Telebasis salva next to the Argia dancers, because the genetic evidence shows this relationship. Manolis (2003) and others had placed it after Ischnura forktails solely because the arrangement of genera among the Coenagrionidae pond damsels was alphabetical. By luck, however, the genetic evidence does place the Enallagma bluets between the Argia dancers and the Ischnura forktails.
• followed a mitochondrial DNA study of Enallagma bluets (Turgeon et al. 2005) to sequence the few species of bluet in MTY

The order used by Manolis (2003) within the skimmer family — to wit, meadowhawks, pondhawks, dashers, skimmers, and then gliders, in that order — is supported by the mitochondrial DNA evidence.

• Hasegawa, E., and E. Kasuya. 2006. Phylogenetic analysis of the insect order Odonata using 28S and 16S rDNA sequences: a comparison between data sets with different evolutionary rates. Entomological Science 9: 55-66.
• Manolis, T. 2003. Dragonflies and Damselflies of California. Univ. of Calif. Press, Berkeley.
• Paulson, D. 2009. Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West. Princeton Univ. Press, N.J.
• Saux, C., C. Simon, and G.S. Spicer. 2003. Phylogeny of the dragonfly and damselfly Order Odonata as inferred by mitochondria 12S ribosomal RNA sequences. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 96: 693-699.
• Silsby, J. 2001. Dragonflies of the World. Smithsonian Instit. Press, Washington, D.C.
• Turgeon, J., R. Stoks, R.A. Thum, J.M. Brown, and M.A. McPeek. 2005. Simultaneous Quaternary radiations of three damselfly clades across the Holarctic. Amer. Naturalist 165: E78-E107 [electronically published]

• Kathy Biggs's site [photos, i.d. discussions & keys to all California species]
• CalOdes dragonfly discussion group [chat group in real time, including new records and updates]
• iNaturalist Odonata Working Group [discussion of Odonata taxonomy worldwide with editor Dennis Paulson]

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