102 DRAGONFLIES [CH. IV 



Dragonfly held captive by its wings, it is received by the 

 legs and brought forward to the mouth. 



The acts of mating and of fertilisation are accom- 

 plished during flight or in part during rest on reeds or 

 other herbage. The reproductive aperture of the male 

 is situated on the ventral surface of the ninth abdo- 

 minal segment. But it is not from this aperture direct 

 that the spermatozoa are received by the female, for prior 

 to sexual congress the male bends his abdomen downwards 

 and forwards so as to bring the ninth segment in contact 

 with the second which has in it a small sac into which the 

 spermatozoa are passed. Within this sac is a penis of 

 complicated structure; its exact form differs greatly in 

 the various genera and species 1 . The female is then 

 sought by the male and grasped from above round the 

 neck by the clasping appendages (in some cases, e.g. Lestes, 

 highly complex structures) situated at the posterior ex- 

 tremity of the body. In this phase the two insects are 

 placed "tandem-wise," the tail of the male just over- 

 lapping the head of the female. The female now bends 

 her abdomen round underneath so as to apply her ninth 

 abdominal segment, which carries the opening of the 

 oviduct, to the sperm-sac of the male in his second abdo- 

 minal segment, and thus fertilisation is brought about. 

 In some species the male retains his hold upon the female 

 while the eggs are being deposited, even to the extent 

 of entering the water with her ; in others he releases her. 

 The eggs are deposited in various ways. Some species drop 



1 Miss M. F. Goddard, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc. Philadelphia, xxxv. 

 1896. 



