9 



Dragon-flies and Damsel-flies 



FIG. 122. The black wing, Calopteryx 

 maculata. 



(brownish in freshly moulted, or teneral specimens), and a long, slender body, 

 of striking metallic blue or green. The females can be distinguished from 

 the males by their possession of a milk-white pterostigma (Fig. 121). These 

 beautiful "black wings" are found 'n gentle fluttering flight, usually along 

 small streams in woods or meadows. The female lays her eggs "among 



the rubbish and mud along the 

 borders of ditches," and the 

 nymphs found in the ditches 

 and streamlets have the middle 

 one of the three caudal gills flat 

 and shorter than the other two. 

 Kellicott has seen the males of 

 this species fight fiercely with 

 each other. " Two will fly about 

 each other, evidently with con- 

 suming rage, when one finally 

 appears to have secured a posi- 

 tion of advantage and darts at 

 his enemy, attempting, often suc- 

 cessfully, to tear and damage 

 his wings." 



The best known representative of the other genus is a perfect master- 

 piece of insect beauty and grace. Entomologists know it as Hetcerina 

 americana (Fig. 123); I suggest that we call it the "ruby-spot," although 

 only the males bear the gem. The head and thorax of the males are 

 coppery red, the abdomen me- 

 tallic green to coppery, and the 

 basal fourth of each of the long, 

 slender, and otherwise clear wings 

 is bright blood-red. In the females 

 the whole body is metallic green, 

 with the basal third of the wings 

 pale yellowish brown. These dam- 

 sel-fly beauties are shy and retiring, 

 rarely venturing more than a few 

 feet away from the willow-overhung 

 bank of their favorite swift-running 

 stream. Sometimes hundreds of 

 them come together and cling in 

 graceful festoons to the drooping willow branches. Then they look like 

 strings of rubies, or of warm red flowers or seeds. 



The family Agrionidae includes the host of slender-bodied, narrow- and 



FIG. 123. The ruby-spot, Hetcerina 

 americana. 



