THE BANANA RIVER COUNTRY 303 



A pair of the handsome dragonfly Hetcsrina titia were en- 

 gaged in laying eggs, the male holding the prothorax of the 

 female by his caudal appendages and the two flying along 

 together. They alighted on a bare sloping branch which 

 projected some eight inches above the water's surface. On 

 the downstream side of this they backed toward the water, 

 the female becoming completely submerged, but the male on 

 reaching the water let go his hold of the female and remained 

 in the air, making short flights from time to time but re- 

 turning to the top of the stick. The female meanwhile 

 backed farther and farther down and was much of the time 

 out of sight, owing to the muddiness of the water. Occa- 

 sionally I could get a glint of light reflected from the white 

 envelope of air around her body and wings. She was in- 

 serting her eggs into the stick and remained completely 

 submerged from 2.35 to 2.47 P. M., then climbed to the 

 water's surface — to be met by my net and transferred to 

 my collecting box. 



The male of Hetcerina titia has much or all of the hind 

 wings dark brown, the front wings bright red at the base, 

 the red bordered externally with dark brown but leaving 

 the outer half of the wing clear except at the extreme tip. 

 The females have the wings yellowish or, when older, dark 

 brown, but without any red at any time. The body of this 

 species is one and seven-eighths inches long and the spread 

 of wings two and one-quarter inches. Hetceriyia titia and a 

 companion species on the Cienguita this day, Neoneura 

 amelia, had not been recorded as occurring in Costa Rica. 

 Neoneura amelia is a much smaller insect, less than one and 

 one-quarter inches in body-length, with clear wings which 

 spread one and two-fifths inches; the body of the male is 

 black and orange-red, of the female black and greenish- 

 yellow; both sexes are very slender. 



As usual in the hotter parts of Costa Rica there were 



