9 
period. Immediately after molting they are very light green- 
ish or grayish and their characteristic color-pattern is beauti- 
fully distinct, but they gradually darken and the coloration 
becomes more and more obscure until, as the time for the next 
molt approaches, it is almost entirely lost and the nymph be- 
comes uniformly dark and dingy. 
When grown, the nymphs seek the shore or some floating 
object and clamber up a little way on standing vegetation, logs, 
tree-trunks, sticks, bridge-piling, the sides of boats, or the like, 
and, fixing their feet firmly, proceed to transform to the im- 
ago stage. Transformation mostly takes place very early in the 
day and is largely over with by nine o'clock, although scatter- 
ing emergences may occuratany time. The usual process will be 
fully described under T'ramea lacerata. The adults scatter con- 
siderably, but a large number remain in the original vicinity, 
busily ovipositing for a new brood of nymphs. A short but 
undetermined period elapses before egg-laying begins. 
Oviposition is of two kinds, endophytic and exophytic. 
That of the groups with more slender nymphs, Zygoptera and 
Eschnid, is endophytic. They have an elongated egg, which 
is inserted by means of an ovipositor into living or dead vege- 
table substances, either resting in water or at least moist. 
The female immerses the tip of her abdomen or enters the 
water completely. She usually succeeds in escaping safely 
from it, but is sometimes rescued by the male (Todd,’85). The 
oviposition of the groups with broader nymphs, Gomphide, 
Cordulegasterida, and Libellulidw, is exophytic. Their eggs 
are shorter and oval, and are extruded in a gelatinous matrix. 
The female dips her abdomen in the water, usually during 
flight, releasing at each dip a number of eggs, which sink to 
the bottom or lodge on the vegetation. Sometimes, when too 
hotly pursued by males, she will alight on water moss or drift- 
wood and cast her eggs loose there. In the case of Leucorhinia 
this is apparently the usual method of oviposition. In some 
cases the eggs may be deposited on moist mud (Diplar, Somat- 
ochlora) or affixed to the bank or to water plants. The female 
