TBANSACTIONS. 



SESSION 1891-92. 



I.— DRAGON-FLIES : THEIR LIFE-HISTORY. 



By Mr WILLIAM COATS. 



(Read Nov. 25, 1891.) 



The leafy month of June, that loveliest segment of the year, 

 bestowed by Nature on those whose eyes and ears have 

 been opened to the beautiful in sight and sound, brings us, 

 among other recurring beauties, the dragon-flies. The light 

 and graceful forms of these insects, their beautiful and varied 

 colours, their large and lustrous wings, their eager and rapid 

 flight, render them objects certain to arrest and rivet our atten- 

 tion wherever met with. Splendid but voracious, rivalling 

 with their brilliant metallic hues our butterflies in their varied 

 and gorgeous colourings, they are then entering upon their last 

 and mature stage of existence, which, for however long it may 

 extend, is principally devoted to the continuance of the species. 

 Having quitted an aquatic, or more properly a mud-grovelling 

 existence, the remainder of their life is passed revelling in the 

 luxury of sunshine — a fitting termination to a life-history so 

 wonderful. 



At one time it was thought that insects, during their exist- 

 ence, passed through four distinct stages — viz., the egg, the 

 larva, the pupa, and the imago or perfect insect — but it is 



vol. in. A 



