368 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



be Cora marina, previously known from Mexico and Guate- 

 mala, or intermediate between it and C. alcyone of Bogota. 

 It was one and three-quarter inches long and had a wing- 

 spread of two and one-quarter inches. The males were 

 attractively marked with black and sky-blue and had a 

 reddish-brown patch on the middle of each wing. In the 

 females pale green replaced the blue and the patches were 

 absent from the wings. Presumably the larvae are as inter- 

 esting as those of Cora chirripa of Juan Vifias, but we did 

 not find them. 



In conversation with Custodio Alfaro about the things 

 we were collecting, we learned that the local name for dragon- 

 flies was "reyes" (kings). I showed him a larger species 

 {Brechmorhoga) and a smaller (Heteragrion); he said the for- 

 mer was "un rey, " but for the latter he knew no name. 

 There are many popular names for these insects in different 

 parts of the world, but one analogous with that given by the 

 Custodio is "rajah," reported by Mr. C. W. Andrews as 

 applied by the natives of Christmas Island in the Indian 

 Ocean to the still larger species, Jnax guttatus. 



On December 19, Professor Tristan and P. spent the af- 

 ternoon along the Rio Siquiares, whose waters were suffi- 

 ciently lower than in August to permit our crossing from 

 bank to bank on the stones. The leaf-cutting and bull's 

 horn thorn ants were busy and there were many butterflies 

 and dragonflies, although of different species, for the most 

 part, from those of our previous visit. On the following 

 morning we went north from Turriicares, crossed the Si- 

 quiares and a potrero north of the stream and reached a 

 smaller stream not visited on our former trip. This brook 

 flowed first through open pasture, then was bordered by a 

 fringe of trees containing some wild figs with slender stems 

 and trunks most fantastically shaped, due to their constrictor 

 habit. 



