K D D i j k s t r a
dragonflies | freshwater | fieldguides
Each species is a world parallel to our own. Exposing those worlds opens new frontiers in the study, love and protection of nature. Freshwater is life, which dragonflies give a face with their beauty and a gauge with their sensitivity. I therefore strive to make them the new birds: the first insect order to attain universal popularity and application in science, conservation and public interest.
Species advocate
Species give our living planet personality: each of a hundred new dragonflies I discovered is a story worth sharing. I presented Attenborough's dragonfly to Sir David for his 90th birthday and reflected on this honor and 'species sense' in Nature.
Nature popularizer
My European guide is the most successful publication on dragons and damsels to date, with over 35,000 copies (in 5 languages) sold of the first edition and some 1000 citations. An introduction to the Odonata of Madagascar and nearby islands came out in 2021.
Freshwater conservationist
As member of the Freshwater Conservation Committee and Dragonfly Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, I aided two firsts for insects: a global estimate of extinction risks and a complete Red List for a tropical continent.
Afro-odonatologist
Our handbook covers 65% of African Odonata. I made 100% (770 species) applicable in conservation with African Dragonflies and Damselflies Online (images, maps, papers etc.) and the African Dragonfly Biotic Index as postdoc in Stellenbosch.
Teacher and convener
I lectured from Angola to Holland and Taiwan, and for the Tropical Biology Association in Tanzania, Madagascar and Uganda. I co-founded the African Freshwater Entomology Workshops AFRESH and Dutch dragonfly society NVL. I’m also taxonomic editor for Odonatologica and International Journal of Odonatology.
Identifier and classifier
All work on African Odonata rests on my >60 taxonomic and faunistic papers, with >80 new species named, including 61 in one publication. Globally, I led the order’s first consensus classification with 19 authors, the most complete molecular phylogeny of damselflies to date, and described three new families.
Knowledge curator
I’ve assembled a collection with 91% of African species; we have genetic data and field photos for >80% (by end of 2019). I found 83% of Africa’s species and 63% of Madagascar’s in the field (black dots on map). Our data’s extent and detail are unparalleled in tropical insects (white dots, Madagascar not shown).
Evolutionary ecologist
As postdoc in Cambridge, I explored why there are so many species in freshwater for Annual Review of Entomology. Aquatic insects belong to the most concentrated and responsive biodiversity, being tied to water but able to fly, with great value for evolutionary and global change research.
Knowledge repatriator
As a Dutchman in Africa, I feel the West has a duty to bring back knowledge obtained in the global south. Working for the national museums of Suriname and The Netherlands, I helped return expertise on biodiversity (the former colony’s greatest asset!) as field guides and collection data.
Dragonfly consultant
I try to react to each of the hundreds of requests I get every year for identification and information! I also consult on biodiversity, commercially and for conservation agencies like Conservation International, Birdlife/RSPB, IUCN, NABU, and A Rocha.
Africa biographer
Species are the best way to know a place, as they say something about both its past and present. My PhD thesis summarized in 2007 what I learned by studying the diversity of Africa's dragonflies. This, in turn, informs us about the continent's future.
Wildlife explorer
Besides >1000 field days in 23 African countries (map above) and four trips to Madagascar (by end of 2021), I worked in the Palearctic (incl. Belarus), Americas (USA, Mexico, Suriname, Brazil, Dutch Antilles), Asia (Brunei, China, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand), Papua and Australia.
Eternal expatriate
I was born in The Netherlands (1975), raised in Egypt (1980-1988), lived in Uganda (1995), Suriname (2007-2008), England (2012), and South Africa (2013-2017), and spent 27% of the 21st century’s first 20 years in Africa. Settling in Alkmaar, North Holland, in 2020 thus sparked a quest of reacquaintance!
Birder and naturalist
Since finding this baby tortoise when I was nine, I’m a ‘bionomer’, always eager to know more species, especially of plants, insects and vertebrates. I recorded 4465 bird species globally (up to March 2022), finding new species for Egypt, Uganda, Mozambique and Suriname.
Biological illustrator
I began sketching wildlife as a child, painting this lifecycle of a Striped Hawkmoth Hyles livornica when I was thirteen. Nowadays my drawings mostly show diagnostic details of dragonflies, while my photos convey their habits and habitats.
Scientific creator
At heart, I’m a writer who uses science to get his stories straight. Species are to life what words are to language: distinct if transient manifestations of an organic evolution, one foundational to biodiversity, and one to society. Naturalists straddle the two: life is formed and meaning given.