TRUE DRAGON-FLIES 



(Family GomphidcB.) 



In this family and the following ones the wings are held 

 horizontally when the insects are in repose; also the eyes are not 

 pop eyes. This group is also by late authors considered a sub- 

 family of the i^schnidae, and is then called Gomphinae. They 

 are separated from their nearest allies from the fact that their eyes 

 are widely separated. The species are rather large, and with 

 certain forms the end of the abdomen appears much swollen, 

 especially in the male; as, for example, in the interesting form 

 known as Gomphus vastus Walsh. 



Kellicott says of these dragon-flies : " Their habits are various. 

 Some are found only about the rapid streams or wave-tossed 

 lakes; others by reedy pools; while others haunt sloughs mantled 

 by lily pads. They do not fly about in apparent sportiveness, as 

 do the Libellulas. The females rest among the adjacent foliage 

 or on the ground in some nearby pathway, repairing at intervals 

 to the water's edge or skimming the roughened surface of the 

 rapid stream or disturbed lake for oviposition. The males rest 

 nearer the water, skirt the bordering aquates, or explore the 

 water far from shore in search of the ovipositing females. 

 Copulation is at rest in low herbage or high up in trees. The 

 female oviposits unattended by the male, and the eggs are washed 

 from the tip of the abdomen by repeated dips into the water 

 cither in some quiet nook among the weeds or in other species 

 far out on the rough surface of swift stream or wind-disturbed 

 lake. Most species fly in early summer, some in mid, and a few 

 late in summer." 



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