Life- History. 1 5 



surface of the stem, no doubt in this case also inserting 

 eggs in it, but they could not be discovered. 



On September 11, 1898, ALscJina grcxndis was noticed 

 ovipositing in shallow water, close to the edge of one 

 of the large ponds in Richmond Park. This it did by 

 settling on a floating weed, or one that was but little 

 exposed, and then bending the abdomen so as to dip 

 its extremity into the water. This appeared to be 

 done deliberately, as if the eggs were being carefully 

 placed (Fig. 3). 



On more than one occasion, when ^LLscliua juncca 

 was seen busily engaged in oviposition, it seemed 

 as if she rested on the surface of the water, or perhaps 

 rather on a weed that was just submerged, while laying 

 her eggs; but whether she dropped them at random, or 

 deposited them in a selected position, was not clear. 

 There is, however, no reason to doubt that in common 

 with other Dragonflies which possess ovipositors, this 

 one places them within the surface of a plant.* It 

 seems to be the habit, on the other hand, of the 

 Libellulidce, which possess no ovipositor, to drop the 

 eggs into the water in a very unstudied manner.f 



If the eggs are examined under a microscope of 

 sufficientl}' high power it will be at once noticed (see 

 Fig. 4J that there are two kinds — the more or less 

 elliptical, and the elongated ; and it is perhaps more 

 than a coincidence that the broad-bodied Dragonflies 

 and their relatives without ovipositors (some of whose 

 bodies, however, are not broad) have elliptical eggs, 

 while the essentially long-bodied Dragonflies — the 

 yEscJmiucc and the Agrioiiida — possessing ovipositors — 



* Entom., 1894, p. 296; 1897, p. 34. f Entom., 1897, p. 280. 



