278 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



in length, the major being in Platetram depressum about three- 

 quarters of a milHmetre. With the ^schnines, however, the 

 egg is much longer than broad, being, in fact, a cylinder with 

 rounded ends — in Anax formosus nearly 2 mm. long and one-third 

 of a millimetre broad. I have not seen any Calopterygine eggs, 

 but those of two Agrionines — Agrion cyathigerum and Pyrrhosoma 

 tenelluni — were very similar to one another, and closely resembled 

 those of the ^Eschnines, being of course smaller, though large 

 for the insect ; they were not quite cylindrical, but the transverse 

 axis increased a little in length towards the end bearing the 

 pedicel. It would seem that the broad-bodied group and their 

 relatives have broad eggs, while the decidedly long-bodied groups 

 have elongated ones. A dragonfly like Anax formosus must pro- 

 duce a tremendous number of eggs, for when about to lay the 

 body of the female contains little else than ova. No doubt this 

 is an advantageous provision of nature, for the very young 

 nymphs, and possibly the eggs also, must find many enemies in 

 their watery home. In the case of several species I have noticed 

 that the female drops the eggs at random into the water, often 

 being accompanied by the male, which, with its anal appendages, 

 clasps her by the thorax, apparently with the object of supporting 

 her on the wing while she is ovipositing. 



As regards larva-nymphs, by various means I was able to 

 identify several during the season. From the Black Pond was 

 obtained a nymph, which I suspected to be Cordulia (snea, but 

 about which I could not feel quite certain, as it at first sight 

 closely resembled the nymph of Libellula quadrimaculata. The 

 discovery of one or two skins, that clearly belonged to the same 

 species, in close proximity to newly-emerged imagines of C. cenea, 

 made me confident that I was right in my surmise, and the 

 breeding of a specimen on May 21st from a nymph obtained 

 near Byfleet enabled me to identify the species with certainty. 

 It may be distinguished from L. quadrimaculata and Platetram 

 depressum, both of which broad-bodied nymphs it closely re- 

 sembles in general shape, by the greater length and slenderness 

 of the legs, by the pale lateral markings on the abdomen, and 

 by the shape of the ninth and tenth segments, which end abruptly 

 and do not taper off gradually to the anal appendages. On May 

 16th, at the Black Pond, I found a C. cenea so lately emerged 

 that its wings were not inflated, transfixed through the head by 

 a spike of dry grass. The insect was alive, and the accident had 

 probably been caused by the wind, for the same day I took a 

 living female floating on the water. 



Although I bred P. depressum on June 14th, and had during 

 a previous season bred L. quadrimaculata, I am afraid I could 

 not undertake from their general appearance to distinguish be- 

 tween the nymphs. The former appears to have stouter legs, 

 with which it burrows easily in the mud, and it should, I think, 



