SYMPETRUM FONSCOLOMBII IN THE FORTH AREA 13 



about the spot for an hour vainly hoping it would return, 

 I moved to a potato patch farther up the garden, and, as 

 luck would have it, there met with another Dragon-fly, much 

 duller in colour than the first, but otherwise very similar. 

 Though displaying the same activity when on the wing, 

 its flight was — perhaps owing to the later hour — less sustained 

 than that of the other, and several times it settled on the 

 ground, only, however, to dart off again on being approached. 

 In the failing light there was difficulty in keeping it in sight ; 

 but in the end, at a quarter to eight o'clock, I succeeded in 

 getting the net over it as it clung to the top of a weed. 

 Two days later, in the belief that it was a female of Sympetrum 

 fonscolombii, I showed it to Mr K. J. Morton, who confirmed 

 my supposition ; and there is no doubt the one I first 

 saw was a male of the same species. On 13th September 

 a red Dragon-fly was observed near the south end of the 

 May by Miss Baxter, as I learned from her on landing 

 the following day ; but it passed out of sight in a few 

 seconds, and was not again seen. Next, I heard from 

 Mr P. H. Grimshaw that a Dragon-fly which had been 

 caught by a boy in Easter Road, Edinburgh, on nth 

 August, and brought to the Royal Scottish Museum, had 

 turned out to be another female fonscolombii. Finally, in 

 November, when naming a box of insects for Mr J. W. 

 Bowhill, I was delighted to recognise a fine male which 

 had been taken near Aberlady, on 30th July; it was 

 captured by himself shortly after noon, in a hollow among 

 the coast sandhills, and he tells me there were others, 

 probably not less than half a dozen, along with it — he saw 

 four on the wing at one time — but their movements under 

 the influence of the strong sun were so quick that he 

 failed to secure more than the one. 



In Europe, Sympetrum fonscolombii is a native of the 

 countries bordering on the Mediterranean, occurring, so 

 far as is known, north of the southern half of France only as 

 a migrant or wanderer ; while in Africa it is distributed, 

 according to Dr Ris, 1 as far as the Cape of Good Hope, and in 

 Asia as far as Cashmere and the Nilgherries. Prior to 191 1, 

 1 Die Susswasserfauna Dentschlands, Heft 9, Odonata, 1909, p. 38. 



