SOME OTHER LIBELLULA. 177 



The Libellula, which Geoffrey calls (in his " Histoire des 

 Insectes ") the Philinta, is simply the male of the species we 

 have just been describing. You may see them 



" Where water-lilies mount their snowy buds," 

 pursuing one another with an abrupt, jerking I had almost 

 said staccato flight. 



A species less common than the preceding, but closely 

 resembling it, is the Fran^oise of Geoffrey, the Libellula quad- 

 rimaculata of Linnaeus. It owes its descriptive or specific 

 designation to the colours which diversify its wings. On the 

 outer edge of each, two brown marginal spots are con- 

 spicuous : the first at the place where in the Eleanora (and 

 other species) the black spot is found, and the second nearly 

 in the centre of the external border, which, at this point, is 

 considerably compressed; moreover, the lower wings are 

 marked, beneath their yellow base, with a kind of triangular 

 spot of blackish brown, finely reticulated with yellow. Ex- 

 ternally, there is no difference of appearance between male 

 and female, except that the abdomen of the latter is some- 

 what the larger. 



Now we come to the Sylvia, the Libellula cancellata of 

 Linnaeus. Its eyes and thorax wear a greenish hue; the 

 diaphanous wings are spotted with brown near the outer 

 margin; the abdomen is of a bluish-gray; the extremity of 

 the sixth segment, and the following segments, are wholly 

 black. 



M 



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