DRAGONFLIES IN 1907. 167 



hooks and a cincture round the waist, and a few strands of silk 

 spun around it, forming a slight cocoon. 



The first imago (a male) emerged on June 5th ; it pupated 

 on May 19th, making the pupal period seventeen days. Others 

 emerged at intervals during the first half of June, in all five 

 males and one female — all fine specimens. 



Hitherto the life-history of L. acis has remained a blank to 

 British entomologists, and by the meagre descriptions given by 

 the various authors concerning the larva and pupa, obviously 

 copied from Eiihl, very little appears to be known to the Con- 

 tinental authors. Certainly Kiihl's description is confusing 

 and misleading, as he states the larva is full-fed in August, 

 changes to a pupa in September, and passes the winter in that 

 stage. 



DEAGONFLIES IN 1907. 

 By W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. 



In 1907 I seem to have met with little that was worthy of 

 record in connection with the British Odonata. The season was 

 not an early one, the first dragonfly observed being a male 

 Pyrrhosoma nymphula at the Black Pond, Surrey, on May 5th. 

 In my experience, however, there was no dearth of specimens of 

 the various species as time went on, whatever may have been 

 the case with insects of other orders. 



At the beginning of September Sympetrum striolatum was 

 very common in the New Forest, and no doubt it continued on 

 the wing as usual till well towards the end of the year, but 

 the last specimen noted by myself was on Bookham Common, 

 Surrey, on September 22nd. Sympetrum sangidneum was pre- 

 sent on Ockham Common, Surrey, on September 8th, and on 

 the following day I captured the species at the Black Pond, 

 where I had not previously met with it. 



Mr. A. 0. Bowden tells me that on July 21st he took 

 Orthetrum ccerulescens at Tavy Cleave on Dartmoor, and Mr. 

 G. Nicholson gave me a female example of its congener, 0. can- 

 cellatum, taken at Wroxham, in Norfolk, in August, which had 

 caught a Vanessa urticce. On July 31st Cordulegaster annulatus, 

 which was common in one of the rides in Dames Slough En- 

 closure in the New Forest, seemed in some cases to be pursuing 

 the butterflies which were also numerous there. On August 2nd, 

 also in the Forest, I saw an A^iax imperator hovering over a 

 boggy pool near Beaulieu River, and found a bodyless Pieris napi 

 on the surface of the pool, which I concluded had been captured 

 and mutilated by the dragonfly. The same day Lestes sponsa, a 

 common species, but one I have not often met with in the New 



