INTRODUCTION. 



This brochure has been prepared in answer to the 

 often repeated query of students and young natural- 

 ists, "What book can I get to help me in identifying 

 the dragonflies." If it does not prove helpful to these 

 inquiring ones, the purpose of its making has been 

 missed. The effort has been to prepare a helpful and 

 suggestive guide, clear and scientifically accurate; and 

 to record without too painful dryness, the present 

 state of our knowledge of a delightful group of insects. 

 Should the attempt prove in a measure successful, as a 

 means of increasing interest in these lively creatures 

 and in helping some earnest minded young people to 

 enjoy more thoroughly the pleasures of studying 

 nature afield, the writer will feel richly repaid for his 

 pains. 



The writings of Dr. Herman Hagen, Baron de 

 Selys-Longchamps, W. F. Kirby, Benjamin D, Walsh 

 Philip P. Calvert, Nathan Banks, Rene' Martin and 

 other students of the odonata have been freely con- 

 sulted and deep obligations to each are acknowledged. 

 Much assistance has been given in collecting by Pro- 

 fessor J. S. Hine, Professor E. E. Bogue, by my son, W, 

 E. Kellicott and by many students of the Ohio State 

 University. 



It does not seem necessary to give here an account 

 of the anatomy and metamorphosis of the dragonflies ; 

 this has been done quite recently in papers by Nathan 

 Banks, 1 Philip P. Calvert, 2 and by Professor J. H. 

 Comstock, 3 nor will the bibliography be repeated, as it 



(1.) A Synopsis Catalogue and Bibliography of the Neuropteroid Insects 

 of Temperate North America. Transaction of the Am. JEnt. Soc, of Phila- 

 delphia, Vol. XIX. 



(2.) Catalogue of the Odonata of the vicinity of Philadelphia, with an 

 Introduction to the Study of this Group of Insects, lb. Vol. XX. 



(3 ) Manual for the study of Insects, Ithaca. N. Y., 1895. 



