8o BritisJi Dragoiijiies. 



I noticed them settling with drooping wings on the 

 flowers of rushes growing in the shallows some little 

 distance from the edge of the pond, the rushes bending 

 with their weight. Here they were safe, for though I 

 spent a long time in pursuit, wading after them in 

 water above my knees, }-et, even when an occasional 

 cloud was passing, they always leisurely ' moved on ' 

 just when I laboriously got nearly within striking 

 distance. Some were affected by a dark carmine- 

 coloured acarus, and on one specimen I counted eighty- 

 five." 



Migration. 



There can be no doubt that the specimens of this 

 insect taken by Mr. C. A. Briggs and his brother in 

 Surrey in 1892 were part of an immigrant swarm, 

 about which, says the former, two points are worth 

 attention : " First, the total absence of the female. 

 Though no doubt, as a rule, in this genus the female 

 is either much rarer or is of more retired habits than 

 the male, still if the female had been there, one at 

 least must have been seen, as we were specially on 

 the look-out for them. The other point is that the 

 extremely early date would seem to shew that they 

 must have come from a much warmer climate, possibly 

 North Africa." "^ 



Occurrence, i^.^a"-*--^- ^^-r ■- - ^(^W/« 



On Ockham Common, in Surrey, in June, 1892, ^1 iioi,y\A 

 Messrs. Briggs took seventeen males, the first twelve 



*E.M.M., 1893, p. 9. ^^^' ^f ^' 



f-tqoG 



