18 ME. R. J. TILLYARD : LIFE-HISTORIES AND 



Mr. Goldfinch netted two fine males near Katoomba. The day was dull and 

 sultry, and the insects were sitting quietly on twigs. The following week I 

 visited Katoomba, during very hot weather, and saw several specimens flying 

 swiftly along the edge of the precipice at Leui-a as early as 5.30 a.m., the 

 temperature being already over 80°. About 7 a.m., the temperature then 

 being nearly 90°, the flight was almost over, but I was fortunate enough to 

 capture a fine male flying swiftly along the track to the falls. This is the 

 type (J. By 10 A.M., the temperature having reached 98°, not an insect 

 was to be seen. The rest of the day was spent in a vain search for more 

 specimens. The next day a southerly change with rain, and a drop to about 

 40° in the temperature, put an end to all collecting. 



This year Mr. Groldfinch and Mr. G. A. Waterhouse took five females 

 at Katoomba on Oct. 6th, and I was fortunate enough to obtain several 

 specimens of both sexes during two visits on Oct. 11th and 18th. From a 

 mature ? I extracted a fair number of ova, which I found to be of the 

 typical ^schnine form, very elongated, and even more pointed than usual 

 {Plate 9. fig. 24, compare figs. 22, 23). A very careful search for both living 

 larva? and exuviae has so far proved fruitless. 



The flio-ht of this insect is distinctly ^schnine, but with some individual 

 peculiarities. Usually it does not fly very fast and is fairly easy to capture, 

 -especially because of its fondness for resting on twigs or leaves of bushes. 

 It avoids the more open spaces and prefers to fly in the forest, either round 

 the trees or along narrow tracks. In such places its coloration renders it 

 dark and very difficult to see. When approaching a bush to rest the insect 

 drops suddenly close to the ground and then rises to its resting-place. Other 

 ^sclinince have a similar habit, but not quite so marked ; whereas Gomphiiue 

 nearly always approach a twig from above. Sometimes, when disturbed, 

 these insects will circle about iii complicated evolutions, often getting up a 

 great speed and finally making off with great rapidity. 



The living larva of this species would be of the greatest scientific import- 

 ance, and is probably, next to the larva of Clilorogomphus, the most valuable 

 phylogenetic clue yet to be discovered amongst our existing Odonata. The 

 structure of the rectal gills and of the gizzard should prove of immense 

 interest. Unfortunately, I am so far completely at a loss in mv search for it. 

 In the case of Petalura it was purely by chance, after four years^ searching, 

 that I discovered the secret of its larval history, and probably the solution in 

 the case of Austropetalia will not be arrived at any more easily. The form 

 of the ovipositor and the sharply pointed ova prove indisputably that the 

 female oviposits in vegetable tissues ; but the build of the larva, with the 

 fin-like lateral lobes of its abdominal segments (almost suggesting a remnant 

 of Trilobite ancestry) , is so peculiar as to offer no safe guide as to its habits. 

 I have dredged and examined every hole and corner of two likely creeks at 

 Katoomba, without the slightest success. 



