278 [December, 



brilliant. Our primary quest was supposed to be after Trichnptcra,, but 

 excepting Limnophilus affiiii^, there seeuied to be few about, and we were 

 lapsing into easy-going indifference and small expectations, when Mosely 

 netted and handed me a dragonfly which I at once recognised as Si/miietrum 

 fonscolomhii,m\ unlooked-for capture. It soon became evident that the species 

 was present in some numbers, and several examples of both sexes were 

 secured, all of them in teneral condition, varying only in degree, some of 

 them able to fly actively enough, others still in the limp state of almost 

 recent emergence. Mr. Herbert Campion, to whom I sent early notice of the 

 occurrence oi fonscolombii, tells me that Lis brother, Mr. F. W. Campion, has 

 since visited Ruislip five times between October 7th and 16th but has faikd 

 to find any trace whatever of the species. On the earlier visits the days were 

 fairly bright although rather cold, but the last mentioned day was a favouiable 

 one for dragonflies and S. driolalum was still flying freely. Mr. Cam}>ion has 

 also learned that Mr. Haines, as tie result of an accident, had not been able to 

 visit the pond at Morden, Dorset, during the summer, but that he had been 

 there in September and had seen no fonscolombii, the day, however, having 

 turned out badly. 



This occurrence of *S'. fonscoloinbii is an interesting addition to what is 

 known of it as a British breeding species. I am not aware that it has hitherto 

 been taken in this country so late in the season, most of those recorded having 

 been captured in June and July, the latest, I think, being about tlie end of 

 August, and these fully mature specimens. Lucas, in 1912 ("Entomologist," 

 p, 144), summarised the recorded occurrences prior to that date, he having 

 found it rather commonly in the New Forest in 1911, aj^d in the same maga- 

 zine for 1913-14-15 there are further i-eferences to the species. Haines 

 (" Entomologist," 1921, p. 197) records the reappearance of the insect in 

 Dorset after a supposed absence since 1914. Although from the observations 

 ot Haines, the species would appear from time to time to be able to breed in 

 the South of England for several consecutive years, yet the evidence at present 

 available supports, on the whole, the view that S. fonscolombii is in the same 

 category as some of our Lepidoptera, an alien immigrant unable permanently 

 to establit^h itself as a British breeding species. 



The life-cycle oi S. fonscolombii does not appear to be known, but in the 

 warmer countries in which it is really at home, it probably develops rapidly, 

 producing more than one brood in the year. In a cold summer like the pa.st 

 one, however, the possibility of this October emergence being the result of an 

 immigration earlier in the same season is excluded (if such a result is ever 

 possible in our climate), the presumption rather being that the insects are 

 descendants of others that were present at Ruislip in the warmer summer of 

 1921, and that their development has been unduly retarded by the absence 

 of genial weather, with, it is feared, disastrous consequences to the local stock. 



Dr. Ris has pointed out to me that analogy exists iu colour-system and 

 distribution (though probably not depending on afiiuity) between this species 

 and the North American Sympetnim corvvptum. In this connection it may be 

 mentioned that Needham, who describes tlie nymph of S. corruptum in his 

 "Aquatic Insects of New York State" (N.Y. State Mus. Bull., 68, p. 271, 

 l9Uo), says that Professor Cockerdl took this species in trausformation__at 



