THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XXXVII.] FEBKUARY, 1904. [No. 489. 



DRAGONFLIES IN 1902 AND 1903, 



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



(Plate III.). 



Both seasons were ushered in by a late, ungenial spring, 

 and, though casual emergences took place fairly early, the 

 season proper was late in commencing in each case. With most 

 species the bad weather seemed to make no great difference as 

 regards numbers later — a result which might be expected with 

 insects that pass their early stages in the water. Consequently 

 the scarcity so marked in the case of Lepidoptera was not so 

 very noticeable amongst the Odonata, at any rate in Surrey and 

 the New Forest. 



In 1902 Mr. F. M. B. Carr met with Pyrrhosoma nymphula 

 as early as April 24th in the New Forest, and with a freshly 

 emerged Libellula depressa on April 28th ; but the first dragon- 

 flies observed by myself were Libellula quadriinaculata and Cor- 

 dulia cenea at the Black Pond, Esher, on May 19th. In fact, 

 dragonflies were shy in emerging in Surrey till after the 

 beginning of June. 



Though the weather promised better in the earlier part of 

 the spring of 1903, ungenial weather later again kept the insects 

 from emerging. My first sight of a dragonfly was on May 4th 

 in the New Forest, and the species was probably P. nymphida. 

 The first L. quadr'uitacidata was seen at the Black Pond on 

 May 24th. The warm weather of the last day or two of May put 

 a new complexion on things, and on the glorious summer day 

 that ushered in the month of June dragonflies were very numer- 

 ous at the Black Pond. ' 



Curiously, on February 24th, 1903, a fine female specimen of 

 Hemianax ephippirjer was taken flying in a street in Devonport. 

 The species somewhat resembles, and is nearly as large as, 



ENTOM. — FEBRUARY. 1904. E 



