DRAGONFLIES IN 1897- 279 



be sought there ; L. qiiadrimaculata, I believe it may be safely 

 asserted, will always be found amongst weeds. 



A male Agrion pidchellum put in an appearance on May 22nd, 

 but I was not expecting to breed the species, and the nymph-case 

 after the emergence was so collapsed that little could be made 

 of it. 



On June 7th, near Wisley in Surrey, I found a number of 

 nymph-cases of Calopteryx splendens. This nymph cannot pos- 

 sibly be confused with any other except its congener, C. virgo, 

 which, however, it certainly does very closely resemble. But as 

 I have never met with C. virgo anywhere in the neighbourhood, 

 while C. splendens is remarkably "common, its identification was 

 a matter of certainty. It possesses three caudal lamellae, as do 

 the Agrionines, but the outer ones are three-edged instead of flat, 

 and the nymph itself is very much larger than any of that family. 

 Besides this the triangular head and extremely long basal joint 

 of the antennae are also conspicuous points for distinguishing it 

 from anything except C. virgo. Of those found on June 7th, 

 some were on reeds and others on wooden walls. In the latter 

 case they must have crossed a canal-path and then climbed 

 several feet up the wall before disclosing the imago. All were 

 a good deal incrusted with mud. This insect, which is of a 

 general brownish colour, is shown in the Plate (fig. 3), twice 

 natural size. Singularly enough, I received from Mr. Bell- 

 Marley, on Aug. 3rd, a nymph (apparently of JEschna cyanea), 

 which, he says, must have crawled ten yards or more out of the 

 water, and then mounted a high railing before the imago emerged. 

 He noticed the absence of pond-reeds, and this probably was the 

 cause of the expedition. 



Collecting at the Black Pond on June 17th, I came across an 

 empty nymph of Anaxformosiis, whereupon a young friend, W. 

 Prest, who was with me, searched carefully, and found a fair num- 

 ber of nearly perfect cases at the bases of the clumps of rushes : 

 others he obtained in the same manner on the 21st. In this 

 instance, though no imagines were found near the empty cases, 

 there could have been no doubt as to the identification, even if 

 the nymph had been unknown to me, for no other dragonfly 

 at all commensurate with A.formosus was then on the wing at 

 the Pond. It is represented of the natural size at fig. 2 in the 

 Plate, and maybe described as follows : — In length it is 54mm., 

 and in breadth 10 mm. The colouring of the empty case is a 

 pale yellowish brown ; along the back is a much darker stripe, 

 which is almost obliterated on the posterior part of each segment, 

 and is traversed down the centre by a pale streak. Most of the 

 abdominal segments have eight small dark depressions, and the 

 sides of the abdomen, as well as the thorax, are relieved by a 

 number of pale streaks. The head is flat, while the eyes are 

 large and rounded, and separated by almost a straight line from 



2 a2 



