DEAGONFLIES IN 1896. 33 



on Sept. 9tli being very small. Darkening of the wings does 

 not occur, but the females show a varying amount of orange 

 colouration at the base. A remarkable point in connection with 

 this dragonfly is the striking difference between the yellow colour 

 of the immature insect and the almost black tint of the adult. 



Whether P. deprcssum was scarcer than usual last season I 

 cannot say, but I noted it on four occasions only, three being in 

 Surrey — a female on May 10th ; another on June 1st, on the 

 wing, between 5.30 and 6 p.m.; and a third on June 14th; 

 while as late as Aug. 2nd I took yet another female, in the New 

 Forest, with the blue colouration on the abdomen as in the 

 male. This one was very late in the summer ; can it be that the 

 blue colour was due to age '? 



This season I did not meet with L. quadrimacidata till 

 May lOlih, when it was out in good numbers at the Black Pond. 

 By June 14th its numbers were fewer, and it was almost over 

 on July 19th. I also found the species near Brockenhurst on 

 July 5th ; in good numbers over ponds near Wisley on May 17th 

 and 23rd ; and in smaller numbers at the Basingstoke Canal on 

 May 23rd and June 20th. The Four-spotted Dragonfly is given 

 to vary in two directions. Sometimes a dark cloudy colouration 

 is developed on the four wings in the region of the pterostigma, 

 while again (and often in the same individual) the saffron tinge 

 found at the base of the wings may spread along the costal 

 region almost to the tip of the wings. There seemed to me to 

 be more instances than usual of both varieties last season, and 

 I took three very nice specimens of the former {lorceniihilia, 

 Newm.), which are usually scarce. At the Black Pond, on 

 June 21st, a male was secured eating a P. minium : this is the 

 first time I have observed cannibalistic tendencies in a dragonfly, 

 as well as the first time I have seen one of these insects fall a 

 prey to another animal. 



0. ccsrulesceiis I met with only in the New Forest, where in 

 several localities it was plentiful at the beginning of August. 

 The males appeared to be less common and more difficult to 

 catch than the females, which are very liable to be confused 

 with S. vulgatiuii : the former, however, were not usually secured 

 over water, as were the latter. 0. cancellatiun was just coming 

 on the wing on May 17th near Wisley, and I took an immature 

 female. On July 26th I spent some time trying without success 

 in Eichmond Park, to catch what could scarcely have been 

 anything else than a fine male of this species. 



Four of the Cordidiidce are found in Britain — Cordidia arctica, 

 Zett., C. metallica, Lind., C. csnea, Linn., and C. curtisii, Dale. Of 

 these I came across one only — C. cenea — in 1896, and but few 

 specimens of this. The dates were, at the Black Pond on May 10th, 

 May 31st, and June 14th ; at the Basingstoke Canal on May 23rd. 



Of the Gomphidce but two species are natives of Britain — 



