8 | DRAGONFLIES OF NORTH AMERICA 
she is unaccompanied. Sometimes she inserts merely the tip of her 
abdomen beneath the surface of the water and sometimes she backs 
down the stalk which she has chosen, until she is completely sub- 
merged. 
The eggs are about one twenty-fifth of an inch in length. A close 
examination of the stems of aquatic plants at the margin of a pond 
where Anax is abundant will often discover one that shows a double 
row of punctures, as even and regular as the stitching of a sewing 
machine. Within are the tiny, yellowish eggs, tucked carefully into 
the plant tissues. 
This represents the only care which the mother gives her young. 
A very large number of eggs is laid by each female, so that a great 
many may be destroyed without reducing the standing of the species. 
The development of the egg and the hatching of the nymph require 
about three weeks. When the nymph emerges from the egg it is a 
tiny, long-legged, spider-like object, scarcely a tenth of an inch in 
length. It moults many times before reaching maturity. After the 
third or fourth moult the wing covers appear and increase in size with 
each successive moult. The nymph grows rapidly, becoming ever more 
and more powerful and ferocious. It does not hesitate to attack 
creatures nearly as large as itself, and is a dangerous enemy indeed 
to the other little inhabitants of the water. 
The body at first is pale green marked in a pattern of dark brown 
in longitudinal streaks. This is a scheme of protective coloration well 
adapted to conceal it among the stems of aquatic plants which form 
its chosen lurking place. The depth of coloring varies with environ- 
ment and age. Directly after a moult the coloring is much paler; 
at this time, too, the skin is soft and tender, and the nymph is more 
likely to fall a victim, then, to some one of his relentless enemies. The 
body of the nymph is smooth and slender; the legs, as befit the climb- 
ing habit, are long and fitted with strong tarsal claws. 
The lower lip or labium, by means of which the nymph secures its 
food, quickly, quietly, and cleverly, is a wonderfully fine grasping 
mechanism. It may be extended with wonderful quickness to a length 
that is nearly a fourth of that of the entire body. At the tip it bears 
two lobes that are armed with powerful hooks. When a victim is 
seized, the lobes shut down upon the body of the captive, and the 
labium is closed, thus bringing the prey into a position where it is 
easily torn by the powerful jaws. If the insect thus captured be a large 
one, the grip of the labium is usually shifted as much as is necessary 
to enable the nymph to begin his meal at the tail end; slender, soft 
