34 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



sticking to it as if dead. Upon closer examination I was 

 surprised to find its wings neatly folded up passing over the 

 base of its hind legs and then under, with their ends pressing 

 and lying fiat on the cardboard, the hind legs stretched out 

 and resting along the side of the abdomen, the latter being 

 curved with the extremity on the cardboard between the apices 

 of the wings ; the other two pairs of legs were folded up with 

 the tarsi crossed under the body ; the antennae closely packed 

 away under the neck and covered with a shining substance 

 apparently excreted from its mouth. I was at first unable to 

 account for the way it was attached to the cardboard, but on 

 carefully examining its jaws I found the ends were firmly fixed 

 into the cardboard, which it had previously gnawed, causing a 

 small portion to become jagged, giving it a firmer grip. Upon 

 turning the picture upside down and giving it a list, the body 

 came slightly away from the backing, but it remained rigidly 

 fixed by its jaws. I then placed the picture aside for a few 

 days, and on Dec. 26th I again examined it, and found it had 

 not moved in any way, so made the two accompanying drawings. 

 After making fig. 1, which represents it as described, I had to 

 remove it to make fig. 2, of the -ventral surface, to show the 

 position of the wings, legs, and antennae. In removing it I had 

 to forcibly pull it off the cardboard ; in doing so, it tore away 

 with its jaws the small piece they had gripped. 



The only movement I have noticed has been a slight pulsation 

 of the abdomen, although it has remained in a box on a mantel- 

 piece above a fire daily burning for a month. 



There can be but little doubt that the wings are folded away, 

 and also the legs and antennae, during hybernation to protect 

 them from injury, which they would be subjected to from the 

 attacks of mice, beetles, &c., if exposed in the normal position 

 of a wasp while resting when not hybernating. 



January, 1903. 



ON A METHOD OF PRESERVING THE COLOUR OP 

 THE AGRIONIN^. 



By Stanley W. Kkmp, P.E.S. 



All collectors of dragonflies must have deplored the way the 

 colour of the small blue and red Agrionidae disappears on drying. 

 Evisceration which, with care, yields good results in the case of 

 the larger forms, is impossible with these delicate little species. 

 The loss of colour is especially annoying, as the species are, 

 in some cases, distinguished by the markings of the second 

 abdominal segment. 



