248 Annals of the South African Museum. 



curiously foreshadowed even iu those remote ages. But evidently 

 they represent a type of adaptation without any reduction of parts, 

 which was iu its way a definitive and ideal solution of a mechanical 

 problem, fully as efficient as widely different solutions that involve a 

 far greater modification of the primitive insect plan, as, for instance, 

 the most highly specialised groups of Lepiitoptera, Diptera or Hymen- 

 optera. Indeed, a living dragonfly of the larger kinds, in full vigour, 



Fig. 1. — Chlorolestes longirauda. Dorsal, frontal and ventral views, fr. 

 Frons. vert. Vertex, occ. Occiput, occf. Occipital foramen. cpe. 

 Compound eye. oc. Ocelli, ant. Antenna, lab. Labium, lab. ml. 

 Median lobe. lab. II. Lateral lobe. mdb. Mandible. 3. Oena. Ibr. 

 Labrum. ad. Anteclypeus. pel. Postclypeus. 



is one of the splendours of Nature iu the skill, grace and sustained 

 strength of its movements, the gay colours of the slender body, the 

 strong lace-like wings, which are seldom ornamented, and mostly 

 nothing but wings. Curiously enough, our poor human attempts to 

 construct an inanimate flying thing resemble, if anything in Nature, a 

 dragonfly. 



The three essential parts of the insect body — head, thorax and 

 abdomen — all have characteristic features in the Odonata. 



The head is distinguished by the extreme development of the com- 



