NEUROPTERA. 53 



large kinds of theso insects ? Who has not often had 

 his attention arrested, when wandering by the rippling 

 stream with tapering rod and treacherous flies attached, 

 a large insect of glossy green flits by, the sunshine 

 glittering on his burnished body ? And who has not 

 admired ? This is the demoiselle Dragon-fly {Calopteryx 

 virgo), than which a more lovely object can scarcely be 

 met with in the whole world of insect life. The body 

 is nearly two inches long, very slender, now dark steel- 

 blue, now emerald-green — you cannot tell which for 

 more than a moment — for the glancing sunbeams now 

 give one colour, now another, to the burnished surface ; 

 the wings are large and gauze-like, with a large dark spot 

 on each. This is the male. His partner is grass-green 

 in colour, the wings are of a rich' gold, and there are no 

 dark spots. 



The Libelliilidce are generally divided into two large 

 groups, the Agrionides and the Libellulides ; in the 

 former the head is set transversely to the body, giving 

 it a hammer-like appearance, the eyes are wide apart, 

 the wings when at rest meet back to back over the 

 insect's body. In the latter, the head is large and 

 globular, the eyes are immense and almost meet ; the 

 wings when at rest are always extended. To the 

 Agrionides belong the genera Calopteryx and Agrion ; 

 to the Libellulides, the genera Libellida, JEslina, Anax, 

 etc. 



In Plate II., Fig. 2, will be seen a figure of an insect 

 of the genus Agrion; it is the A. minium or vermilion- 

 red Dragon-fly. Thousands of these delicate little 

 insects, with abdomens not thicker than a darning 

 needle, some blue tinted, others red or some other 



