NOTES ON ODONATA. 



15 



worn female on July 27th, and a fine male on July 29th. In 

 addition to these, I believe I saw a male at Shenley on July 24th, 

 but it may have been Libellula depressa male. 



Somatochlora metallica, Van der Liud.— The fact that this 

 insect had been found in what is practically a single locality m 

 Scotland and nowhere else in the British Islands was a mystery 

 in the geographical distribution of animals, and my discovery of 

 it this year in a very restricted locality in Sussex has not gone 

 very far to solve this mystery at present. However, I took this 

 magnificent dragonfly in the above-mentioned county on August 

 Brd^nd 4th, and I observed it there in considerable numbers, 

 though I did not come across the female. I first noticed the 

 males flying round the trees and bushes which overhang the 

 margins of certain large ponds near Tunbridge Wells, but after- 

 wards I also saw them flying about high up in the woods and 

 along the hedgerows in the close neighbourhood of these ponds. 

 Settling very seldom and being peculiarly adept at avoiding the 

 net, they were very difficult to capture, especially as the collect- 

 ing-ground was treacherous. Along the hedgerows they flew 

 with remarkable rapidity. Their food consisted of small flies, as 

 far as I could make out.' Another visit to the locality at the end 

 of August was not wholly unsuccessful, for in addition to peeing 

 a female which I was unable to capture, and which was oviposit- 

 ing among some reeds, I saw other specimens. It seems highly 

 probable to me, from my observations on this and the next 

 species, that the green colour of the Corduliine Odonata is protec- 

 tive. It remains to be seen whether the insect has migrated from 

 the Continent, but there is no reason for supposing this to be 

 the case. 



Cordulia cenea, Linn.— Two males were taken on June 23rd 

 at Burnham Beeches, Bucks, where many others were seen flying 

 at the tops of trees as well as over the water. 



Cordulegaster aunulatus, Latr., was fairly common in Car- 

 narvonshire at the end of June, and I took several males near 

 Tunbridge Wells on August 3rd and 4th. A female seen in 

 Wales was ovipositing at about six o'clock in the evening in 

 a stream of water by the side of the road, in which there was 

 certainly not more than five millimetres depth of water. 



Anax imperator, Leach.— On June 23rd several specimens 

 were seen at Burnham Beeches, Bucks, and on June 24th a male 

 and two females were captured in a gravel-pit near Shenley, 

 Herts. The male mentioned was caught with a mature male 

 L. depressa in its jaws (or perhaps it would be more accurate to 

 say " in its legs," as the legs are used for catching the prey), 

 showing how voracious this interesting insect is. Another 

 observation, made in Sussex on August 4th, when several 

 specimens were flying over a pond near Tunbridge Wells, seems 

 to point to their love of killing apparently for their own amuse- 



