Iowa's dragonflies and damselflies, order Odonata, are fairly well studied, at least recently. In fact, there is a great web site that deals with them, found at www.iowaodes.org. The Iowa list contains 109 species.  The website is the work of Ann Johnson and other members of the Iowa Odonata Survey, which is a small group of very dedicated volunteers who have studied and documented the dragonflies and damselflies of Iowa.

Dragonflies and damselflies are very watchable insects. They are every bit as entertaining as the butterflies. In addition, they are important predators of other insects, in particular some of the pest species like mosquitoes.

In fact, the aquatic larval forms of dragonflies and damselflies are important predators as well. Since mosquito larvae are aquatic organisms as well, they are prey in both stages.

Some things are just being learned about dragonflies and damselflies. For example, some are migratory in a manner that is similar to monarch butterflies.