Despite a proliferation of regional faunistic treatments throughout North America in recent years, knowledge of the Odonata fauna of Missouri has lagged behind that of other midwestern states. Samples of larval Odonata were collected from 105 ponds in the Prairie Region of Missouri over three sampling periods: Fall 1998, Spring 1999, and Summer 1999. Some ponds were sampled during more than one sampling period, resulting in a total of 117 unique pond and sampling period combinations. Sites were selected from Missouri Department of Conservation owned lands and the University of Missouri owned Baskett Wildlife Area. Within each pond, sampling was conducted separately in each distinct vegetational mesohabitat. Supplemental rearing of difficult or uncommon taxa was carried out in in the laboratory.

More than 30,000 specimens, representing 51 species, 22 genera, and 6 families of larval Odonata were collected from ponds in the Prairie Region of Missouri. Overall, the ponds of the Prairie Region supported a generalized Odonata community, with a relatively small number of species being found in a large number of ponds. Presented here is a faunistic inventory of the larval Odonata of ponds in the Prairie Region of Missouri, with mesohabitat associations and a taxonomic key to suborders, families, genera, and species known or expected to occur there.