NO. 1710. NORTH AMERICAN DRAGON FLIES— WILLI AMBON. 387 



cess in collecting these dragonflies is due to a recognition of this fact, 

 for the knowledge that one is waiting for the appearance of a dragon- 

 fly at the particular point near which that insect will return, even 

 though a great breadth of water and willow herb lies all about, 

 instills in one that patience which is essential in collecting these 

 insects. The use of the word success in the above sentence may be 

 questioned ; many fruitless days have been spent wading the Wabash. 



Males capture the females over the water, sometimes chasing them 

 to great heights. The i)airs come to rest in trees or bushes. The 

 females oviposit unattended by the males, following the shore line 

 ver}^ closely, ranging back and forth over a short distance, and hover- 

 ing and striking the abdomen into the water. Fights between males 

 are not rare, though I am not sure that males of the same species 

 fight. In the few cases I have been able to determine certainly 2 

 species have been involved. 



Under certain conditions specimens of Corduleg aster have been 

 reported as being very easily taken with an insect net. The few Cor- 

 dulegasters I have captured in flight have not been such easy prey, 

 and at the present time I can not distinguish Macromias and Cordule- 

 gasters on the wing. At the same time I have never taken Macro- 

 mias at such small streams as I have found C'ordulegasters, nor have 

 I taken Cordulegasters at such larger streams (see pis. 35, 36) as 

 Macromias frequent. 



Material examined. — Hagen's type, Pacific Railroad survey, lat. 

 38°, mafe (M. C. Z.). Waco, Texas, May 25, male and female (M. 

 C. Z.), Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milwaukee River, cement mills, July 

 2, 1902, teneral female, V. Fernekes (Mil. Publ. Mus.). Mahomet, 

 Illinois, June 10, 1898, teneral female, C. C. Adams (C. C. A.). Kappa, 

 Illinois, July 13, 1895, male, C. C. Adams (C. C. A.). Bluffton, Indi- 

 ana, June 15 and August 3, 1902, male, 2 females; August 8 and 13, 

 1905, 2 males; August 19, 1906, male; August 11, 1907, 4 males; 

 June 28, July 10, ami August 1, 1908, 14 males, 2 females. Total, 

 25 males, 7 females. 



MACROMIA ANNULATA Hagen. 



Length of abdomen: Male, 52-54 mm.; average, 52.6; female, 

 52-55 mm. Length of front wing: Male, 45-48.5 mm.; average, 

 46.5; female, 50-52 mm. ; average, 51.3. Length of hind wing: Male, 

 44-46 mm.; average, 45; female, 48-50 mm.; average, 49. Length 

 of first tibia, male, 7.5; hind femur, male, 12. Length of tibial keel 

 in length of tibia, male: First tibia, ^; middle tibia, |. 



Antehumeral thoracic stripe long, separated above from the ante- 

 alar sinus by about its own width or slightly more. Latero-ventral 

 metathoracic carina broadly 3^ellow. Yellow ring on abdominal seg- 

 ment 2 very wide, uninterrupted (in one specimen there is a faint, 

 middorsal, longitudinal pale-brown streak) ; apex of segment 1 laterally 



