V 

 ODONATA 



Dragonflies and Damselflies 

 This is a very peculiar group of strong-flying carnivorous 

 insects. Some of them are of large size and many are 

 brilliantly colored. They capture their prey in flight. During 

 hot summer weather they haunt every pond and stream in 

 considerable numbers, and 

 a few of them linger on until 

 late autumn. The name 

 of the order Odonata is 

 supposed to have been 

 suggested by the very 

 sharply toothed rapacious 

 jaws.* 



The head is very freely 

 movable on a slender neck, 

 and the immense com- 

 pound eyes overspread its sides. The synthorax i s very 

 large and strongly aslant with the wings shoved far 

 backward above, and the legs far forward below: the 

 wings are flat and veiny with a somewhat hingelike notch 

 near the middle of the front margin. The spiny legs are 

 adapted for standing but not for walking, and their forward 

 position favors perching on vertical stems. The long ab- 

 domen of ten segments is loosely attached at its base. 



* Odons, tooth. 



51 



Fig. 16.— The 



"White-tail" dragonfly 

 (Plathemis lydia), perching. 



