CH. IV] DRAGONFLIES 103 



them singly at random in the water, just touching the 

 surface as they do so, others alight upon water-weeds and 

 deposit their eggs among them, or within them by inci- 

 sions, pushing the abdomen a little way into the water. 

 Others again lie flat with wings expanded upon the sur- 

 face and the abdomen hanging down into the water, while 

 yet others do not hesitate to walk down the stems of 

 reeds or grasses completely below the surface of the water 

 and deposit the eggs on or in the mud at the bottom. 

 Occasionally the eggs are laid in the mud of partly dried 

 up ponds and ditches. The eggs are small, mostly less 

 than 1 mm. in length, and elliptical in outline ; in some 

 the major axis is four or five times as great as the minor, 

 in others not twice. They are not unfrequently infested 

 by a minute hymenopterous parasite, Anagrus incarnatus. 



In about three or four weeks after oviposition young 

 larvae emerge from the egg-shell. They are at first almost 

 transparent and swim about by means of their relatively 

 long legs, and subsequently they become opaque and 

 move about chiefly by crawling. The skin is cast off 

 several times. The wings, of which at hatching there was 

 no trace, appear first as minute processes, and increase 

 in size with each successive moult. By the time the larva 

 is ready to pass into the imago the wings reach about 

 half-way down the abdomen ; even then however they are 

 quite insignificant in comparison with those of the perfect 

 insect. 



The food during all stages of life consists of living 

 animals ; in adult life it is obtained by bold and vigorous 

 flight in the air, in the earlier stages by stealthy and 



