﻿BRITISH ODONATA IN 1914. 1B7 



more fortunate, and lie has sent me the following interesting 

 note on that and other Dorset Odonata in 1914 : — " On July 10th 

 I found Sipnpetrumfonscolombii plentiful at the Wareham Pond 

 where I had noticed it in previous years, and took seven males 

 and one female, the latter in copula. The next day I found it in 

 its other former locality on Knighton Heath. On July 13th the 

 females were exceedingly abundant at the Wareham Pond, and I 

 took another pair in copula, as I did also on July 18th. On July 

 20th I took another pair and a single female at Wareham, and I 

 made a similar capture on Knighton Heath on the following day. 

 A chief feature on July 18th was the number of pairs observable 

 in the late afternoon. I believe the great numerical pre- 

 ponderance of the male is more apparent than real. The females 

 are far more difficult to see and follow up than the males, unless 

 they are in copula. They are more likely also to be passed over 

 as l3eloiiging to another species. Females, too, shelter far more 

 than the males amidst the growth in and around the water or on 

 the heath near it. When single females are disturbed as they 

 rest, they shoot up suddenly, almost unnoticeably, to a great 

 height, and are generally lost to pursuit. When wading to just 

 within striking distance of pairs I noticed the females repeatedly 

 free themselves, or become freed, and mount out of reach in a 

 similar way. The species delights in very hot, bright, calm days. 

 In cloudy weather not a sign of the insect will there be. Even 

 the most diligent hunting through the vegetable growth in and 

 around the water will not dislodge a single specimen, however 

 many there may be about. Wind is not so unfavourable as 

 cloud. Indeed, the completeness and suddenness of appearance 

 and disappearance of an abundance of specimens, for part of a 

 day or for days together under favourable or unfavourable 

 conditions respectively, would always make me hesitate to say 

 that the species was absent, at its proper season, from its haunts 

 here, though it might be quite unseen. 



It seemed to me that, as with some genera of Ephemeroptera, 

 the same female would quit one male and afterwards unite with 

 another. The first union — per collum — always appeared to take 

 place over the water. The pair would then make for land, where 

 fecundation would be effected, during which time the pair often 

 remained settled. This is the moment for an easy capture of 

 both. If undisturbed, the pair fly again over the water, once more 

 united per collum only, and the female oviposits. At first she is 

 still attended by the male, but afterwards the process appears to 

 be continued without his further attendance. The female 

 continually dips the tip of her abdomen below the surface, letting 

 fall an egg, or eggs, here and there quite at random in the 

 shallows, where a sprinkling of rush stems grows from the 

 sandy bottom. 



By mid-June the species bad not appeared, and not an 



