182 [August, 



insects were entirely without prey, and I waited for some time in the 

 hope that I might be rewarded later in the evening with some ma- 

 terial to supplement Professor Poulton's recent paper on "' Predaeeous 

 Insects and their Prey."* Just after 7 p.m. I saw the first male 

 and female iii copula, the female being in possession of prey ; I then 

 observed another pair hanging from a grass stem, the female also with 

 prey. I continued to find fresh examples at intervals of a few minutes 

 until six pairs in cop. had been captured, and in all of these the 

 female was in possession of i)rey. It then occurred to me that if I 

 abandoned the search for specimens in cop. I might perhaps witness 

 the act of pairing. T accordingly Kxed my attention upon the females, 

 as far as I could see without prey, at rest on the herbage, &c. In a 

 short time one of these females took to flight, and was almost imme- 

 diately joined by several others. Together they slowly circled round 

 and round in a kind of maypole dance, about three or four feet from 

 the ground: so slow was their flight that ample opportunity for care- 

 ful observation was afforded. After circling round a few times a male 

 suddenly appeared among the dancers, having probably flown from 

 the high hedge near by. He singled out a female and immediately 

 gave chase. I then instantly netted the pair and found the prey 

 which had been dropped into the net. 



The remaining females then settled down again on the grass 

 stems, &c. After a short interval the same scene was again enacted, 

 and the pair netted before copulation had taken place. In this way 

 four pairs were captured, and in every case the prey was dropped in 

 the net. In two instances the flies which had been captured as prey 

 were apparently uninjured and walked about the net. In another 

 case as the male was chasing the female, and a few inches behind, I 

 purposely interposed the net between them and captured the hindmost 

 individual, and found as expected that it was a male with prey. After 

 this four other males were seen to pursue females in the manner de- 

 scribed above. These were watched ver}' carefully to see, if pos.sible, 

 when and how the prey was transferred from one sex to the other. 

 When the male overtook the female there was a brief struggle in the 

 air ; when this was over, the insects at once came to rest on the 

 herbage, and were found to be paired. Only two or three seconds 

 intervened between the time when the male overtook the female and 

 the moment when they came to rest ; so far as I could see the female 

 was always in possession of the prey at the moment of alighting, 



* Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1906, p. 323. 



