utoittolonbt. 



Vol. XXXVIir. 



LONDON, FEBRUARY, 1906. 



No. 



PRACTICAL AND POPULAR ENTOMOLOGY— No. 10. 



The Dragon-flies and Damsel-flies (Order Odonata). 

 by franklin sher.max, jr., agric. college, guelph, ontario."^ 



In most parts of temperate North America the true Dragon-flies 

 are among the most conspicuous members of the insect class in any com- 

 munity where water is at hand. Strong of flight, quick as a thought in 

 their darting movements, wary in the liighest degree, they are usually well- 

 known to all by sight, yet not often captured by the amateur collector 

 unless he takes the time to devote his special attention to them at some 

 favourable place. 



The Damsel-flies, on the other hand, are less wary and less active, and 

 may often be caught in the hand or picked up in the fingers from their 

 resting-place on grass-stems, etc. Their delicate wings and frail bodies 

 are, however, easily broken, and they are not favourites with collectors, all 

 the less so as they are quite diflicult to classify even when in perfect 

 condition. 



Under the older system of classification, they were included in the 



order Neuroptera along with a number of other insects. By more recent 



workers they have been assigned an order to themselves — the Odonata, 



Some entomologists regard them as comprising but one family, — others as 



two families, but the tendency with the most modern workers who have 



devoted special attention to them is to group them into six and sometimes 



even seven families. It is therefore somewhat a matter of preference as 



to what system we shall adopt. For the purposes of this article we have 



divided them into six families, all of which are represented in Ontario, and 



all but one, quite commonly. 



C'lassification into Families. 



The characters used in classifying the Odonata into families are based 

 wholly upon the wings and the eyes, and are characters which are easily 

 recognized if one first learns a little of the structure of these insect^. 



*In this article as well as in any others which he may contribute under the 

 head of " Popular or Practical Entomolog-y," the writer lays no claim to 

 originality in the matter presented, nor are references to literature commonly 

 quoted. The object here is to present the subject in a manner easily understood 

 by non-technical readers. 



