DESCRIPTIONS OF AUSTRALIAN ^SCHNIN^. 23 



pathway, we were soon in the twilight of the scrub. Huge trees towered 

 overhead, a dense mass oi; fern covered the ground, while every few yards 

 splendid tree-ferns (^Dicksonia and Alsophila) raised their graceful forms. 

 Here and there were small dense thickets of native raspberry {Ruhus parvi- 

 folius), fringed round by small prickly bushes, the whole being matted into 

 an impenetrable tangle by the hanging festoons of lawyer- vine (^Calamus 

 Muelleri) and other climbers. In such a place as this the path passed some 

 hundred yards or more above the beginning of a small gully, down which 

 the soakage from the surrounding scrub trickles as a tiny streamlet. Quite 

 suddenly ihere flew out from the underside of a tree-fern a magnificent 

 Dragonfly, which dashed forward in front of us, and settled on the tangled 

 mass of prickly lawyer-vine fringing the thicket already described. I had 

 no net with me, but we crept cautiously forward in the dim light until we 

 stood within 10 feet of this lovely creature, which hung motionless and 

 vertically on the vine, its rich brown wings outspread, and appearing almost 

 part of the dense mass of dark twigs and stems around it. I recognized it 

 at once as a fine newly-emerged female of A. costalis ; the problem was, how 

 to catch it. Leaving my wife as sentinel, I rushed back for my net, return- 

 ing breathless a quarter of an hour later to find no change in the position. 

 Knowing the hopelessness of dealing with lawyer-vine, there was only one 

 thing to do — to strike broadside on and trust to the Dragonfly darting out 

 into the net. I struck, but the Dragonfly was too quick, and escaped by a 

 few inches, leaving the net hopelessly entangled and of no further use. As 

 we had not seen the insect career away, we began to search for it around us. 

 It had dodged behind us, and, turning round, had "hung up^^ on some low 

 creepers only 2 feet from the ground, almost in darkness. Here I found it 

 and extending my hand slowly, without any jerking movement, seized it by 

 the abdomen. 



The next day I visited the same place at the same time, and flushed 

 another fine newly-emerged female within a few yards of the same spot. 

 This time I made no mistake, but secured it at the first stroke from off" the 

 trunk of a tree-fern. 



I then set about finding the male and the larva. The " Rifle Range " was 

 about a square mile in area, situated mainly on a fairly steep hill-slope, and 

 intersected by small gullies down which ran small mountain-creeks. The 

 first week I spent working round the immediate locality of my captures, 

 and dredging the pools of the small creek just below, without success. 

 Ranging further afield, I discovered and explored from end to end five 

 separate small creeks, all difficult of access and lying in steep rocky beds. 

 These all join at the lower end of the scrub into one strongly running stream. 

 Each was worked from top to bottom with the dredge-net, and ferns and 

 creepers were continually shaken in the hope of dislodging another specimen. 

 Finally, on Dec. 8th, I reached the farthest boundary of the scrub, and found 



