The Worldwide Dragonfly Association is an organization dedicated to dragonflies and damselflies. Find out more about the WDA here!
Worldwide Dragonfly Association
The Worldwide Dragonfly Association (WDA) is an international organization dedicated to research, conservation and public awareness of dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata), an ancient and beautiful order of insects with amazing behavior.
As predators in both their aquatic larval stage and as airborne adults, dragonflies and damselflies connect aquatic and terrestrial habitats in ecosystems that vary from deserts to tropical rain forests. Because fresh water is so critical to their lifestyle, these insects are used as indicators of ecological health of their habitats and as proxies for general biodiversity. Increasingly, dragonflies offer opportunities to alert the public of how humans are changing the natural world and particularly our precious freshwater resources. Dragonflies are the “guardians of the watershed”. We invite all dragonfly enthusiasts, nature lovers, citizen scientists, students, academics and professionals, to learn more about Odonata on this site and to join us as members of our international family.
The Worldwide Dragonfly Association is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (charity number 1066039).
Publications
Go to Link AgrionOur society produces two publications, the International Journal of Odonatology (IJO), dedicated to current research on the Odonata, and Agrion, the semi-annual bulletin of the Worldwide Dragonfly Association, publishing news, announcements and short field notes from the WDA community.
We also host the Odonatological Abstracts, a digest of Odonata-related journal articles compiled by Martin Schorr and colleagues for the International Dragonfly Fund (IDF) and the WDA. Although this series was discontinued in 2016, these volumes are still relevant and incredibly useful, summarizing nearly 15,700 papers!
International Congress of Odonatology
WDA organizes the biennial International Congress of Odonatology (ICO), an international gathering of Odonata researchers and enthusiasts (odonatists) from around the world. Check out our past, upcoming, and future meeting sites.
Membership
Become a memberWDA is sustained primarily through its international membership of dragonfly researchers and enthusiasts. Members currently receive a number of benefits and we are working to add new benefits in the coming years to better serve our member needs.
Conservation
As part of WDA’s mission to promote research and education in the field of Odonatology, we offer small research grants and grants for travel to the International Congress of Odonatology. Find out more about these grant opportunities here and see a list of previous recipients here.