Occasional Papers of the Musctiiii of Zoologx 13 



the flight was followed with difiiculty and the individual was 

 usually lost. An Anatya was Hying at the same place and 

 several times in our search one of these libellulines was mis- 

 taken for the gomphine, but the error was detected in every 

 case before the Anatya was netted. On the other hand no 

 gomphines were ever mistaken for libellulines. Years ago I 

 had a similar exi)erience in Ohio the day I first saw Cclitliciiiis 

 clisa alive. It was flying among a large number of CcUthcmis 

 cponina. In my anxiety to get a number of the more beautiful 

 and rarer species, I netted by mistake a considerable number of 

 the commoner species. Hut when a specimen of elisa really 

 appeared it was "spotted"' at once beyond all question. Today, 

 when I no longer care to catch either, they are readily dis- 

 tinguishable even at a distance. 



The proximity of the river and lagoon to the area where we 

 found the adult gomphines left the habitat of the larvae in 

 doubt. In fact we have no assurance that the larvae lived in 

 either, though this was assumed, as careful search at both 

 places yielded no exuviae. Our failure to find them may be 

 explained, however, on other grounds than their absence. 



The absence of the male inferior abdominal appendage and 

 the apparently functionless character of the superior appen- 

 dages, at least as grasping organs, raise the qtiestion of the 

 manner of the grasping of the female by the male during copu- 

 lation. The unusual form of the tenth abdominal segment of 

 the male, and the absence of peculiar modifications of the head 

 and prothorax of the female show at once that this grasping 

 is accomplished in some manner hitherto unknown among 

 Odonata. Dr. Walker has kindly studied a male and female 

 specimen and I quote from his letter: 'T soon decided that the 

 hooks of the tenth segment of the male engage either the pos- 

 terior margin of the prothorax or of the occiput, and I finally 



