DIRECTIONS FOR COLLECTING AND PRESERVING DRAGON- 

 FLIES FOR MUSEUM PURPOSES. 



BY E. B. WILLIAMSON. 



The methods of cohecting and preserving dragonflies described in this 

 paper are for the most part those which have been worked out by the writer 

 in the course of several years of field work. No attempt has been made 

 to try out the many kinds of collecting appliances on the market nor to ex- 

 periment with all of the described methods, but an effort has been made to 

 discover simple and yet adequate appliances and methods for the collecting 

 and proper preservation of specimens of this most interesting group. These 

 directions should, then, be considered as suggestions rather than as dogmatic 

 rules. 



the; collecting and preserving of imagoes. 



Dragonfly habitats. — Years ago the writer heard Dr. Kellicott say that 

 the way to get all of the rotifiers was to look in all the unlikely places, — the 

 likely places would supply a great many, the unlikely places would complete 

 the list. The same is true of all collecting. Visiting a stream at one point 

 does not determine its Odonata fauna on that day. One may follow it with 

 almost barren results for miles, till a sudden turn brings one on a rocky 

 ripple, grass margined, with clumps of lizard-tail, and broken with patches 

 of water-willow where untold numbers of multicolored and iridescent wings 

 spring into view, a score or more species inviting one to the chase. Or a 

 sunny meadow may rise, brush and forest girded, up the hillside from the 

 brook you are following; along the edges of this meadow more than one 

 rare dragonfly may be basking on the leaves of some bush or low tree. What 

 has been said about visiting streams is also true of lakes. If the lake visited 

 is small the entire circumference should be explored by the collector. For 

 various reasons, such as temperature and soil differences, the inlets and out- 

 lets of the lake may differ more or less in their dragonfly species. Prevailing 

 winds through centuries modify the shores of lakes, and one side may be 

 found to be boggy and without a beach while the opposite shore may have a 

 well defined gravel and sand beach, with consequent differences in both fauna 

 and flora. If the lake is large, consideration of the above points should re- 

 ceive the collector's attention when selecting places to work. If one can 

 spend several days along one stream or about some small marsh, the first 

 day or two may profitably be spent in a general survey and in paying atten- 

 tion to the larger, free flying dragonflies, leaving for a later date the close 

 searching of low vegetation and concealed nooks for the smaller, less agile 

 and less readily discerned species. The last day or more may be given to 

 same particularly interesting find of the preceeding days. Remembering, in 

 conclusion, that it has been truly said of the dragonfly collector, "all things 

 come to him who wades." 



