MESOTHEMIS 247 
generally selects a low perch, then it waits for suitable prey to come 
along, and darts out upon it. Many a damsel-fly is thus snapped up 
unawares. At night it hangs up among the foliage of pondside or 
roadside weeds. The female oviposits unattended making descents to 
touch the surface at points wide apart. 
Whedon says (’14): ‘One usually meets with it along the shores of 
lakes and ponds where it perches upon weed stems or flattens itself 
against a path, a dock or an old boat. Its voracious appetite keeps it 
continually active.’’ This habit of squatting, Gomphus-like, was sug- 
gested by the senior author (’01) as the possible explanation of the 
long spines found on the hind femora. 
Mr. F. G. Schaupp observed at. Double Horn Creek near Shovel 
Mount Texas that young (teneral) specimens of this species were com- 
monly found 500 to 600 yards distant from the stream sitting on the 
ground or on bushes, while the old (pruinose) specimens were always 
found near the water and rested on projecting stones in the stream 
bed. 
This species abundant southward, is often of local distribution, as 
shown by the following observations, of Wilson (’09, p. 667). 
In passing up theriver ... . 2 distinct colonies of E. simplicicollis were found. 
The first was 10 miles above Grafton (Ill.) where the east bank of the river was 
covered with hundreds of this species, including both sexes, while many were 
flying across the river. The other colony was 4 miles up the river, at the head 
of an island. Here the island seemed to be the headquarters from which the 
dragonflies flew out in every direction. 
Williamson (’00) notes a peculiar aerial performance: 
Two males... . flutter motionless, one a few inches in front of the other, 
when suddenly the rear one will rise and pass over the other, which at the same 
time moves in a curve downwards, backwards and then upwards. so that the 
former position of the two is just reversed. These motions kept up with rapidity 
and regularity give the observer the impression of two intersecting circles which 
roll along near the surface of the water. 
232. Mesothemis plebeja Burmeister 
Burm. ’39, p. 856: Calv. ’98, p. 78: Mtk. Cat. p. 158 (as verbenata): Ris ’11, 
p. 603. 
Length 45 mm. Expanse 70 mm. Tex. 
A yellowish green species that becomes almost black with age. Thorax of 
teneral specimens yellowish with a broad black antehumeral stripe (stripe 2 of 
fig. 00) each side. Hind wing with a dark brown basal spot reaching the anal 
crossing. Stigma yellowish, membranule black. Abdomen yellowish with black 
carinae. Apical half of segments 4-7 and all of 8-9 black. Appendages yellowish. 
