262 DRAGONFLIES OF NORTH AMERICA 
the taller grasses of the shady flood plains some distance from the water. 
Though sometimes taken about ponds they are usually much less 
plentiful there. They are especially fond of small streams over- 
shadowed by willows and wild cucumber vines.” 
The flight of this familiar species is halting and irregular, butterfly- 
like, with frequent shiftings of level, up and down. Adult males resting 
on the green foliage of some drooping streamside leafy spray in the sun, 
slowly open their elegant wings, and then quickly snap them closed, 
displaying all their gorgeous reflections, as if in ecstasy. The females 
back down into the water only the length of the abdomen in laying their 
eggs, and insert them into either green herbage or soft rotten sticks, 
always where the water is flowing. 
Davis (13) writes that it is 
Common along brooks in June, July and August. and generally distributed. 
This dragonfly will fly from a twig or low plant by the brookside, catch a tiny 
insect and return to the same station again. They often come back to the same 
resting place many times in succession where they remain until some small insect 
BE BS F€ 
maculatum vwulnerata amerieana 

attracts their attention and they sally forth to catch it. In this respect they 
resemble the insect-catching phoebe bird and its relatives. Though usually a 
slow flyer this species often indulges, when two males happen to meet, in a very 
rapid aerial dance and at such times their bright colors show to the best ad- 
vantage. They will advance against each other, dodge or recede, with remarkable 
rapidity and grace, but neither of the combatants ever appears to be injured. 
It seemed to be more of an endurance test. 
58. Hetarrina Hagen 
Ruby Spots 
These are beautiful, slender, bronzy brown damselflies, conspicuously 
marked in the male sex by a broad red spot at the wing base. The 
entire dorsum is bronzy brown with metallic reflections. The sides 
show narrow pale lines upon the sutures conjoined ventrally with the 
paler under side of the body. The legs are slender and spiny. Wings are 
long and narrow with the stigma well developed but small. The arculus 
is strongly aslant its sectors rise from before the middle; the quadrangle 
is arcuate convex anteriorly and vein Cuz begins with a reverse curva- 
