222 DRAGONFLIES OF NORTH AMERICA 
The female usually oviposits unattended. At transformation the cast 
skins are left most commonly sticking to clustered grass stems a few 
yards from the pond. Ants kill many of the teneral adults by first 
biting holes in their newly released wings, preventing their expansion. 
191. Libellula saturata Uhler 
The Big Red Skimmer 
Uhler ’57, p. 88: Mtk. Cat. p. 140: Mtk. ’10, p. 140: Ris ’10, p. 274: Kndy. 
17, p. 609: Ndm. ’23, p. 129: Smn. ’26, p. 34. 
Length 55 mm. Expanse 90 mm. Mont. to N. Mex. and Calif. 
A large stout-bodied, reddish, southwestern species. Face red, including 
vertex. Eyes and occiput brown. Thorax reddish brown, clothed with short 
pubescence of same color, and without stripes. Legs reddish with black spines. 
Wings broad, dark, flavescent as far as nodus, with a deeper streak out to the 
triangles, as shown in figure; veins and stigma reddish. Abdomen red, brighter 
towards apex. Appendages red. 
This is a very showy pond species. Its flight is rather heavy and 
lumbering but well sustained. 
The hairy nymph squats amid the black ooze in stagnant ponds 
and climbs only a little way out of the water to transform. 
192. Libellula croceipennis Selys 
Selys 68, p. 67: Mtk. Cat. p. 140: Ris’ 10, p. 276. 
Length 53 mm. Expanse 85 mm. Tex. 
Similar to the preceeding species, differing mainly in the following characters: 
the yellowish brown of the base of the wings does not extend beyond the nodus 
and is rather uniform in depth of color throughout; there are two cubito-anal 
cross veins; and there is usually one row of cells subtended by the median planate. 
193. Libellula auripennis Burmeister 
Golden Wings 
Burm. ’39, p. 861: Mtx. Cat. p. 135: Ris ’10, p. 273: Howe ’20, p. 69: Garm. ’27 
243. 
Syn: costalis Ramb. 
Length 54 mm. Expanse 86 mm. Atl. Coast and Ohio to Fla. and Tex. 
A fine, big species with golden wings and yellow or reddish stigma. Face 
yellow, becoming reddish with age. Vertex yellowish at tip with a black cross 
stripe surrounding the ocelli. Occiput yellow, fringed with tawny hairs. Thorax 
yellow with thin golden pubescence; without stripes save for a suggestion of 
brown in the hindmost lateral suture (stripe 5). Legs brown, paler to near the 
knees, front femora reddish below. Wings tinged with yellow or red, more deeply 
along the radius and at the stigma, without brown markings though there is a 
