Dragonflies and damselflies, representing the insect order Odonata, are among the earliest flying insects with living (extant) representatives. Getting the insects needed for phylogenetic work requires extensive global fieldwork, and I will discuss the state of dragonfly and damselfly biodiversity analyses in the Amazon region. Unraveling details of their long evolutionary history, such as egg-laying (oviposition) strategies, is impeded by unresolved phylogenetic relationships, an issue particularly prevalent in damselfly families and fossil lineages. I present the first transcriptome-based and AHE-based phylogenetic reconstructions of Odonata representing nearly all of the order’s families (except Austropetaliidae and Neopetaliidae).

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