CHAPTER VIII. 



BREEDING THE NYMPH. 



When a lepidopterist wishes to obtain specimens of 

 butterflies or moths in the best of condition, he does 

 so by breeding the imago from egg, larva, or pupa. 

 A collector of the Odonata, on the other hand, to 

 attain the same object must leave breeding alone, and 

 try to catch the imagines after they have been a week 

 or so upon the wing. Should he, however, desire to 

 study the life-histor}- of the various Dragonflies, equally 

 with the lepidopterist, he must resort to breeding. 



It is not an eas}- matter to obtain living eggs of 

 Dragonflies. To search for them after they have been 

 laid is almost a hopeless task,- nor is it an easy 

 matter to induce the female to deposit its ova in 

 captivity. Occasionally one caught ovipositing may 

 deposit a iew more eggs in a collecting-box, and these 

 placed at once in water would no doubt generally 

 hatch. If a female is held b\- the wings over a vessel 



*Mr. A. Miiller, writing in the E. M. M., 1871, p. 127, says that by 

 sinking a piece of brown paper to the bottom of a pond, and keeping it 

 down by weights, he secured an egg of Syiiipctniui Jlavt'oluiii, and a 

 similar method might be employed to obtain the ova of other Dragonflies 

 that simply drop their eggs into the water. 



