DRAGONFLIES AND DAMSELFLIES IN PONDFISH CULTURE. 217 
there happens to be a small brook at the bottom of the gully fully developed imagos of 
Libellula pulchella and Plathemis will be found, as is usual in such places. These hordes 
of tenerals are simply resting and feeding in comparative security until they become 
ready for the active duties of propagation. The time thus occupied is apparently about 
five or six days but is difficult to determine, because new tenerals are arriving and 
matured individuals are leaving all the time, and it is practically impossible to tell just 
how long any of them remain. 
It is probably a similar retirement from the vicinity of the water during the interval 
between emergence and sexual activity that accounts for the disappearance of some 
of the Gomphus species. (See p. 188.) 
The food obtained in these gullies and out on the prairie is of necessity somewhat 
different from that captured around the ponds, but still consists largely of flies, gnats, 
and mosquitoes, with an occasional lepidopter. 
Perriopic EATING.—Since most of their prey is captured while on the wing, when 
it is bright and sunny the imagos are eating much of the time, while in dull and cloudy 
weather they eat very little, if at all. 
Microscopic examination of the digestive tract shows that the newly emerged 
tenerals do not eat anything for a day or two, until about the time their color pattern 
isfully formed. Probably the tenerals of L. /uctuosa just mentioned take no food before 
reaching the gullies and the prairie. Other tenerals that remain near the ponds of 
course obtain their first food there. 
Again, such an examination shows that, while the imago is voracious and often 
feeds all the time, we can still distinguish two periods of maximum eating, fairly well 
marked. Whatever is eaten during any day is all digested long before the next morn- 
ing, so that imagos captured before leaving their roost in the morning will have nothing 
in their gizzards and very little in the intestine. Accordingly the first period of maximum 
eating comes in the forenoon, shortly after the imago leaves its roost, as soon as the 
insects which constitute its food begin to swarm. This is followed by a lull, or at least 
a diminution in the amount eaten, which lasts until well into the afternoon, and dur- 
ing this period they are occupied with mating and egg laying. The eating then increases 
again, and the second period of maximum feeding, which is more intensive than the 
first, comes toward sunset. 
Of course, it will be understood that there is no intention of implying that imagos 
eat two meals a day, or anything of the sort. There are simply more of them feeding in 
the morning and late in the afternoon and more of them depositing their eggs through 
the middle of the day. Moreover, the gizzards of those captured at 9 or 10 a. m. and 
toward sunset are more apt to be well filled. They are thorough believers, however, 
in eating between meals, and are not restrained in their desires by any irksome rules of 
hygiene. 
Foop Found IN THE ALIMENTARY CANAL OF 218 IMAGOS OF PANTALA FLAVESCENS IN Hawatt. 
Diptera: 
WIE PEON OM DISUS THEWAMENSSS oe ante ee eee Tere com ots wee ee ne cre I 
Nightitmosquitoes;iCrwlex fatiguns? ic) OAR Ween His. dd eestor ie ort} 86. I 
Day, mosquitoes, Stegamyia, scutellarigs:? tus .syanyekh ori. hyleev on: Bi aw. vebeweny. ok ofan I 
UUsidetemmiitied OSH UILOCS A ie te eT A eek g 
Center OTe LEE eter. tates at ee etree het cats < ako RR ate ean 3 
