NO. 1028. DRAGON FLIES OF THE CUMBERLAND VALLEY— WILSON, 193 



found sparingly at different points on the river, notably at Indian 

 Creek Landing, July 19, and Black's Ferry, July 24. 



It frequented the thicker woods where the trees overhung the 

 water. Here both sexes were found attached to the under side of 

 t^v^gs in close proximity, after the manner of Macromia, and when 

 disturbed they returned to the same spot again and again. 



11. MACROMIA ILLINOIENSIS Walsh. 



The most common of all the dragon flies, it is seen everjnvhere up 

 and down the river, in quite sunny places as well as at the rifHes. 



It is a very rapid flier, especially when frightened, or when chasing 

 its prey or other dragon flies, and it never hovers and rarely alights. 

 When two of them come together from opposite directions a fierce 

 fight often takes place, and one of the contestants is sometimes 

 thrown into the water. They are constantly upon the wing in 

 search of food, and they fly so rapidly and dodge so quickly that 

 it is next to impossible to catch one in a net. But they have a 

 habit of congregating in favorite spots among the low bushes, often 

 in company wnth M. tseniolata. Here they hang by their legs from 

 the under side of the branches, sometimes several individuals occu- 

 pying the same branch. Even then it is difficult to get up to them 

 with a net, but they can be easily approached near enough for 

 shooting. 



In this way a dozen specimens of this and the folloMdng species 

 were obtained within 20 minutes in the low bushes beside the wagon 

 road leading to the ferry at Cairo, Wilson County, Tennessee, August 

 19. A curious habit was also noted: About sunset they resort to 

 the cornfields on the river bottoms and patrol them until dark. 

 In doing this they fly between the rows of corn about 3 feet above 

 the ground, going up one row and down the next with remarkable 

 regularity. This habit was observed on many different occasions; 

 indeed, scarcely a cornfield was visited at that time of day without 

 seeing one or more of these Macromias. 



12. MACROMIA T-ENIOLATA Rambur. 



This larger species in every way resembles the smaller preceding 

 one. "V\Tien on the wing the two show scarcely any difference except 

 their relative size. These larger ones are veritable hawks, intensely 

 rapacious, swift enough to catch and strong enough to overpower 

 and eat almost any insect, even some of the Gomplius species already 

 mentioned. They not onh'' congregate with M. illinoiensis, but their 

 habits are exactly the same. Two of the specimens mentioned above 

 were brought down ^\'ith one shot, wlule hanging so close together 

 that they almost touched. On examining them one was found to 

 be a tseniolata and the other an illinoiensis. DiA'crent species of 

 dragon flies do not usually mingle thus intimately, especially when 

 there is such a disparity in their size, 

 48702°— Proc.N .M.vol.43— 12 13 



