254 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [XXXI, '20 



on May lo, June 20, August 28, September 26, October 7, 

 II, 31, November 12, 21, April 5, 20. Specimens are not 

 at hand for all the dates on which the species was noted, so 

 that it is impossible to specify which subspecies was the form 

 seen at each observation. Those which are accessible, irre- 

 spective of locality, are chiefly of the subspecies illotum vir- 

 gula, or intermediates betw^een ;'. virgula and i._ gilvum, as 

 these are defined in the Biologia, volume Neuroptera. There 

 are before the writer i cf ^. virgula and 2 9 intermediate 

 between i. virgula and i. gilvum, all three taken at Cartago, 

 May 10, 1909, over the same swampy place. Two males 

 taken just above Cartago, May 24, 1909, are respectively 

 intermediate between i. illotum- and i. virgula and between 

 i. virgula and i. gilvum. It seems unlikely, therefore, that 

 the exact form of the species has any strict correlation with 

 the habitat. 



In Costa Rica we found this species in open swamps and 

 open fields, at small pools (as in lanes at Cartago), on the 

 banks of the Rio Reventazon (at Cachi), at a tank in acofifee 

 plantation (Cachi). As in other species of this genus, the 

 male and female fly around together while the latter is ovi- 

 positing, the male holding the female's head with his abdom- 

 inal appendages.* 



The occurrence of this species at a given station is erratic. 

 Thus on the southern edge of the town of Cartago : 



"The day .... was May 10, 1909. The rains of the two 

 preceding days had changed the dusty roads to damp and produced little 

 swampy spots in the pastures. Over one of these swamps a species of 

 dragonfly (Sympetrum illotum virgulum) was swarming .... 

 There was an exceedingly handsome frog here {Agalychnis helenae) 

 The morning of May 1 1 was not so bright as that of the preceding day. 



*Dr. C. H. Kennedy states that in California "Usually the female of 

 this species oviposits unaccompanied by the male but here [Auburn in 

 Placer County] I observed a pair working together. " Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus. vol. 52, p. 609, 19 1 7. 



On all of the eleven dates mentioned above for oviposition in the vicin- 

 ity of Cartago and also at Laguna Ochomogo on Sept. 25, our field note 

 books expressly record that male and female were flying together, the male 

 holding the female. We have no record of oviposition in any other way. 



