India, Feb. 23 -- "Dragonflies are not easy to photograph," says Dheerendra Singh (below), 31, a dire note in his voice.
They propel themselves every which way, "up, down, back, forward and sideways, and hover in mid-air."
They're skittish, and fast. "And, of course, they're tiny."
One cannot help but imagine Singh in hot pursuit, across green meadows, anything but a happy camper. Well, he's a happier camper now.
His Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Northwest India (2022; Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh), took 10 years to put together, but is finally done.
Its 528 pages describe 162 species of odonates. "As with birds, the females are often a different and duller colour," says Singh, a naturalist who trained as a botan...