Jan., '05] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



Two Elusive Dragon-flies. 



BY JAMES G. NEEDHAM. 



During three summers spent in Lake Forest I have been 

 much afield, and have always kept a sharp lookout for dragon- 

 flies, which, after the first of June, are very common. Each 

 year I have seen the shadowy form of one I could not capture. 

 Sometimes I would flush it beside a woodland path, and it 

 would disappear at single sweep among the treetops. Some- 

 times it would be seen speeding along high over head, appar- 

 ently coursing for insect prey, but I never saw it at rest, and I 

 could not distinguish its type of coloration. From its size 

 and manner of flight I concluded it must be either a Cordnlc- 

 gastcr or a Afacroniia, and there the matter rested for five 

 years, with often a flash of wings and a vanishing shadow 

 among the trees to remind me of a task of observation incom- 

 pleted. 



During the past spring I have collected from a number of 

 the puny streams that enter Lake Michigan along the ' ' North 

 Shore," and in all of them have found nymphs of Cordnlc- 

 gaster. Grow^n specimens were repeatedly taken during May 

 in a seine drawn for minnows, and on May 24th, while seining 

 out a small pool in a stream, a single newly transformed adult 

 was found upon the bank. It was Cord nlc^ aster obliquus Say. 



On June 26th I was surprised to see one sitting on a reed 

 close to the ground in a w^ood in front of my house ; I was 

 still more surprised at being able to capture it /;/ my hat. A 

 careful bit of stalking and a good stroke did it. This was a 

 a female that had w r andered at least two miles from any stream 

 suitable for the abode of its offspring. 



As this specimen was fully mature I thought that perhaps, 

 by visiting the stream in which I had found the nymphs most 

 abundant, I might be able to make some observations on the 

 habits of the adult. Such observations are much needed. 

 So good an observer of dragonflies as the late Professor Kelli- 

 cott wrote of the Cordulegasterinae in his Odonata of Ohio, p. 

 74, " I have seen so few specimens on the wing that I do not 

 feel justified in giving anything of their habits in the field," 

 and among the few notes concerning C. obliyitHs, there are 



