56 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



Tribe [I., Aeschnina. This tribe is subdivided into two families : Goniphina and 

 Aeschnina. The latter contains the largest and most repulsive of the dragon-flies. The 

 head is large ; the eyes are connected from near the labrum, or upper lip, to the upper 

 part of the head and cover both sides down to the jaws, or mandibles. The mandibles 

 are large and powerful and the thorax is of immense proportions. The abdomen is long 

 and slender, and upon capture the insect will coil and slash it about, which always gives 

 the capturer the impression that it is feeling for a place to sting. The wings are broad 

 and strong, and have little of the colors which beautify those of the other tribes. Aeschna 

 heros is the largest of the species ; it measures about 3J inches in length, including the 

 appendages, and the expansion of the wings is about 4 inches. The insects of the first tribe — 

 Agrionina — fly low and are seldom seen far away from their natural haunts, but nearly 

 all the species of Aeschnina are high fliers and are met with everywhere, in the woods, 

 fields, on the tops of mountains and in the valleys, continually searching for food ; devour- 

 ing every soft-bodied insect which crosses their path, and looking for more. 



Fig. ho. 



Tribe III., Libellulina. This tribe is divided, like the preceding, into two sub- 

 families, Cordulina and Libellulina. The Canadian genera are Macromia, Epitheca, Cor- 

 dulia, Plathemis, Libellula (Fig. 29, L, trimaculata), Diplax (Fig. 28, D. Elisa : Fig. 30, 

 D. Berenice male ; Fig. 31, D. Berenice, female), and Nannophya (Fig. 32, N. Bella). 

 The prettiest i of all our large dragon-flies belong to this division. They are less repulsive 

 and] voracious than those of Aeschna, and the wings of most of the species are beauti- 



FiG. 31. 



fully marked with clouds of various hues. They are readily distinguished from those 

 of the second tribe — although nearly equal in size — by the abdomen alone ; this member 

 is not capable of being coiled up ; it is comparatively short, stout at the base, and 

 gradually tapers off" to the end. The segments are joined closely together and the whole 

 moves, to a very limited extent, up and down on the first segment, after the fashion of 

 tli3 moth and butterfly. 



