CHAPTER VII. 



REPUTED BRITISH SPECIES. 



Besides the thirty-nine (or forty) species of Dragon- 

 flies treated in the preceding pages, about seven others 

 have found places on the British Hst. None of them 

 can now, however, lay a satisfactory claim to a position 

 there. In most cases only one, or else two, examples 

 have occurred ; in all cases the occurrence took place 

 a long time since ; and in several cases the authenticit}' 

 of the capture stands on a very insecure foundation. 

 Four of the species here referred to belong to the 

 Anisoptcridcs, and therefore might have arri\-ed as 

 " casual immigrants." The other three are Zygoptcridcs, 

 with regard to which such a supposition seems out of 

 the question. x'\ll three of the last belong to the genus 

 Lestes^ the species of which genus are not very easily 

 distinguished, and if they ever were here it appears 

 necessary to draw the conclusion that they were here as 

 natives. It will be well to examine as closely as ma\^ 

 be the case for each of these seven insects seriatim. 



I. Leucorrhinia pectoralis, Charp. — At the meeting 

 of the Entomological Society of London on January 2, 

 i860 (" Proceedings," New Series, v., p. 89), a specimen 

 of this Dragonfly, taken in June near Sheerness, was 



