314 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



Then we returned to Bearesem West Main Line and rode 

 along it past the farmhouse to the left bank of the Banana 

 River, up that bank, under the railroad bridge, through an 

 independent banana farm belonging to one Schutt and so to 

 a reservoir collecting water for Limon. Under the bridge 

 and along the river bank our way was on a narrow and 

 muddy path over or alongside the two large iron pipes 

 carrying the water from the reservoir to Limon. At the 

 reservoir Senor Vivo said it was im.possible to ride further 

 as the path going upstream was still narrower than before; 

 after giving me directions for proceeding on foot he returned 

 to his house for breakfast, while I, leaving my horse in 

 charge of a man at the reservoir, walked up the river bank 

 intending to rejoin Seiior Vivo at his house later so that we 

 could go to the potrero together. 



From the reservoir, which was quite near the winding 

 Banana River, two pipes ran up the bank to a small creek 

 supplying water to a higher reservoir. The path followed 

 those pipes. The forest came down to the upper reservoir 

 and I turned into it as there was little to be found at the 

 reservoir or the creek. However, when I first arrived at the 

 upper reservoir, there were on the cement walls a great 

 many of what I supposed to be flies, but on catching and 

 examining a number they proved to be small crickets, a 

 species of Rhipipteryx allied to pulicaria. The body, in the 

 dried specimens, is not quite 4 millimeters long, of a dull 

 pale brown or a dull olive above, with blackish marks on the 

 head (other than the eyes) and on the prothorax. The 

 under surface and the legs are largely blue-black, especially 

 the relatively huge femora of the third pair. As in other 

 species of Rhipipteryx^ described on page 202, the wings 

 when at rest project a short distance beyond the tip of the 

 abdomen. 



In the forest I found a number of dragonflies which I 



