570 INSECT A ORDER NEUROPTERA. 



separated. The ^Eschnidce, which perhaps attract more notice than any other 



dragonflies, measure three or four inches in length, and also 



Family across the wings, and have a long narrow triangle, crossed 



jEschnidai. by several nervures, on each wing, shaped nearly alike on all 

 the wings, and very large eyes, which are contiguous, being only 

 separated by a small suture on the top of the head. The wings are transpar- 

 ent, tinged with brown in one species ; and the bodies are elegantly marked 

 with blue, green, and yellow, on a brown or black ground ; but these colours 

 generally fade in a short time after death. 



The Agrionidce have slender bodies, small and inconspicuous triangles on 



the wings, and wide heads, with the eyes far apart; in fact their heads are 



something like those of the hammer-headed shark on a small 



Family scale. Some of the larger European species, measuring up- 



Agrionidce. wards of two inches across, have beautifully coloured wings, 

 and frequently blue or green bodies. Two species are com- 

 mon in England, one with purplish wings, and the other with a purplish 

 band, resembling our figure 47,but with a longer and more slender body Some 

 of the foreign species are far more brilliantly coloured, the common Indian 

 Neurobasis chinensis (Linn. ) having bright green or blue hind wings Several 

 of the American species of Hetcerina (De Selys), and allied genera, are trans- 

 parent, with a bright scarlet patch at the base of the wings, which are other- 

 wise transparent. Our two British species of Agrion, already mentioned, 

 are fond of flying over ponds or slowly-flowing streams. These coloured 

 species belong to the family Agrioninm, and have more cross-nervures on the 

 costa before the middle of the wing than the other sub-family Cwnagrioniiuv, 

 in which there are only two. The latter sub-family includes a considerable 

 variety of species, all slender, but among them are the largest and the smallest 

 dragonflies known. The largest are South American species, six or seven 

 inches in length and expanse, with long transparent wings, tipped with black 

 or yellow ; the smallest are the little slender-bodied, transparent- winged 

 dragonflies which are so abundant among reeds and rushes. The type of this, 

 sub-family is Ccenagrion puella (Linn.), which has a long body prettily marked 

 with blue and black. It measures rather more than an inch in length, and in 

 the expanse of its transparent wings. 



In all the true dragonflies the antennae are very short, filiform, and in- 

 conspicuous, and are generally only 

 three-jointed ; but in the Planipennia, 

 we meet with insects 

 Ant-Lions in which the antennae 

 (Myrmeleonidce). are of ten of consider- 

 able length, and fre- 

 quently cl ubbed . Th e an t-lions , wh ich 

 belong to the family Myrmeleonidce, 

 much resemble dragonflies by their 

 long, narrow, and generally transpar- 

 ent wings, but their bodies are much 

 shorter, the neuration of the wings 

 is dissimilar, and the antennae are 

 short and clubbed. The ant-lions are 

 not British, though several species are ^ ^^scalaphus Kolyvanensis, Laxm. 

 found in Southern Europe ; their 

 larvae have strong jaws, and hide themselves at the bottom of pitfalls, 



