BRITISH DRAQONFLIES OP OLDER ENGLISH AUTHORS. 259 



make their final change to the perfect insect between 8.15 p.m. 

 and 8 a.m., the greater number between 8.15 p.m and 10.30 

 p.m. Of these, twenty-two were males and twenty-four females, 

 and it was very noticeable how evenly the sexes kept pace with 

 each other : at no time was one sex more than two or three in 

 advance of the other in the order of their emergence. The 

 earliest to emerge was one on June 13th, and the latest on 

 August 17th ; but one, as already stated, has still to change, 

 having indeed not yet cast its penultimate skin. .Eschna cyanea 

 is an admirable nymph to observe, as it is of a very game and 

 sporting nature ; the manner in which it will tackle a worm 

 many times its own length is indicative of very great tenacity of 

 purpose. It has but little skulking in its composition ; nothing 

 which moves in the water, if not too enormous, comes amiss to 

 it ; but perhaps what is most tempting to a by no means fastidious 

 appetite is the blood-red figure-of-8 worm, or the gnat larva of 

 the domestic water-butt. If any brother odonatist wants speci- 

 mens of ^E. ci/anea, it will be a genuine pleasure to me to send 

 them, and I have plenty wherewith to supply several to all who 

 are likely to want them. This nymph is very hardy in the 

 aquarium, and but seldom during the earlier stages of its exist- 

 ence comes to any misfortune, except, be it sorrowfully admitted, 

 a violent end at the hands — or jaws — of its own kindred. 



South Leigh Vicarage, Witney, Oxon. 



BRITISH DRAGONFLIES OF THE OLDER ENGLISH 



A.UTHORS. 



By W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. 

 (Continued from p. 217.) 



6. J. Curtis: ' Bi-itish Entomology,' 182S-184:0. [Neuroptera, 

 three plates, 1836, 1838, and 1839.1 



Curtis figures three species, and gives in the accompanying 

 letterpress a full account of each. Following the notice, in each 

 case, is a list of other species belonging to the three genera — 

 Lihellula, Cordulia, and Agrion — to which he assigns them; but 

 these being without descriptions they can only be identified, in 

 many cases, by reference to the authors which Curtis quotes in 

 connection with them. The following list gives, in all probability, 

 the names at present used for the insects which Curtis intended 

 to enumerate. 



Genus Libellula. 

 Sheet 712. 



1. depressa = Libelhda depressa. 



2. quadrimaculata = L. quadnmaculata : prtmubila is mentioned. 



as a variety of it. 



z2 



