AQUATIC INSECTS IN NEW YORK STATE 220 



able distance from water. They habitually rest among the 

 stems of tall growing rushes and sedges, or flit from stem to 

 stem in short, shadowy flights. Notwithstanding the brilliant 

 metallic colors of some species, they are by no means conspicu- 

 ous in their native haunts; their greens and browns, and their 

 slender bodies and transparent wings are lost against a back- 

 ground of reeds and sedges. 



They feed extensively, perhaps chiefly, on such small gnats, 

 mosquitos etc. as emerge from the water of their own native 

 shallows, or such as rest in hiding during the daytime among 

 the rushes. I have often seen a Lestes dart out and capture a 

 gnat in flight, and then settle on a stem to devour it at leisure. 



The females (of two species at least, L. u ii c a t a and L. 

 u n g u i c u 1 a t a ) deposit their eggs in punctures made in the 

 stems and leaves of plants above the water. For this purpose 

 they utilize the leaves of bur reed or of any of the coarser sedges 

 or grasses, or the flowering stems of the blue flag. The stems 

 and leaves selected for oviposition, usually w^ell exposed clumps 

 here and there about the pool's, are often filled full of eggs for a 

 distance of a foot above the surface of the water. 



I have studied Lestes chiefly in the two species named above, 

 which are common about my home in Lake Forest, occurring in 

 shallow pools of the springtime, that dry out thoroughly every 

 summer, and are usually refilled by the rains of late autumn. 

 I have already published^ some observations made there, on the 

 destruction of the fruit of the blue flag by the puncturing of the 

 fruit stalks by Lestes ovipositing. I wall give here some addi- 

 tional observations of facts more immediately concerning the 

 insects themselves. 



In these pools, which are always dried out by midsummer, the 

 eggs, deposited well above the water, develop normally from 

 the first, and in the course of two or three weeks attain a 

 condition which is apparently almost that in which they will 

 hatch. Then they estivate through the remainder of the sum- 

 mer and early autumn. Development stops apparently entirely, 



lAmerican Naturalist, 34:374-75. 



