AESCHNA 143 
ranging over open fields or bushy pastures. It habitually flies till well 
after dusk. 
Kennedy (’15) reports that it is closely associated with palmata 
both in season and habits. 
98. Aeschna walkeri Kennedy 
Kndy. 717, p. 587. 
Length 65 mm. Expanse 94 mm. Calif. 
The following description is taken from that of Dr. Kennedy. Face bluish 
gray, labrum grayish white, occiput creamy. Lateral thoracic pale stripes 
usually with nearly straight parallel edges. Legs dark brown except tibiae and 
tarsi which are black. Wings hyaline, stigma brown. 
Dr. Kennedy says of it: 
It is a stream species with habits similar to those of palmata. It inhabits the 
warmer frost-free streams of the coast mountains, while palmata lives mostly 
in the colder streams of the Sierras..... 
Aeshna walkeri was most abundant on the stream flowing down at Fry’s 
Harbor (Santa Cruz Island, Calif.). In several quarter mile stretches the course 
of the stream was so deep that its bed was a fairly smooth trough of rock, being 
too steep to retain the rocks and sand washed down from above. Such stretches 
frequently contained pools, mere rock bowls, 6 to 10 feet in diameter, filled with 
water, in which green clouds of filamentous algae floated over the black leaves and 
vegetable trash in the bottom. Such pools were alive with A. walkert nymphs, 
tadpoles, and Archilestes nymphs..... At no place in the stream did aquatic 
vegetation occur and in only a few places did roots hang in the water. Because 
of this lack of vegetation in which Aeshna usually oviposits, the habits of this 
species were unusual. 
During the sunny part of the day the males are found coursing up and down 
the creek. As there is usually a morning fog on the island, which does not clear 
up until 9 o’clock, it is frequently 11 o’clock before the Aeshna males are on the 
creek. They then persist in flying up and down until the middle of the afternoon, 
when they leave the water one by one to hunt insects in the sunshine above on 
the hill tops. In the patrolling of the creek they combine feeding and hunting 
for females. A male will slowly fly along the rocky wall overhanging the water, 
inspecting every nook and cranny, and only give a hurried inspection to the open 
side of each pool. After being satisfied that he has not overlooked a female he 
will rise over the waterfall at the head of the pool and proceed to inspect, in the 
same manner, the stream above..... 
The females do not spend as much time on the creek as the males. Few 
were found on the creek before 3 o’clock, but when it had become almost twilight 
in the depths of the gorge they were nervously hurrying up and down the creek 
ovipositing. The method of this was so unusual that I did not recognize at first 
what they were doing. A female would alight on one of the rock walls over- 
hanging the pool and would try to insert her ovipositor in the rock. After an 
attempt or two she would fly a few inches or feet and make another attempt. 
As the rocks over the pools in the shadier spots were seamed with lines of green 
moss, she would soon locate each seam and drive her ovipositor into the vein of 
