154 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



sponsa, Hans., on a dry pond bed (30 July). E. cyathigerum,. 

 Charp., swarmed on the open clear sheets of water around 

 Southampton from spring until the end of September. Early in 

 the last named month (1st to 3rd) I took teneral specimens of 

 this species. On 21 May I came across C. aenea, Linn., here — a 

 species I had previously overlooked in this neighbourhood." 



H. Slater, writing 18 Sept., 1921, tells me that — Capt. 

 Troup brought him (on 11 July) from Maiden Down near 

 Burlescombe (N. Devon) the only little blue dragonfly he saw. 

 It was A. mercuridle, Charp., and a record for Devon. He goes 

 on to say : " He and I worked, a fortnight later, other parts of 

 the Blackdown Hills (where Orthetrum caeridescens, Eabr., is 

 endemic, but not found, as far as I know, elsewhere in the 

 county). Again we met with one only little blue, and it was 

 again a male of A. mercuriale — this time in Somerset. I expect 

 I shall find it all along the hills, on which are healthy and 

 sphagnous bogs, constituting our boundaries with Devon." 



E. A. C. Stowell informs me that : " Of the less common 

 species the most generally distributed in our woods (sc. near 

 Alton) seems to be C. aenea, Linn., which I have found in Alice 

 Holt and Binswood (both clay with oak) and Headley Park (sand 

 with fir and birch). I caught A. imperator, Leach, at Kingsley 

 pond — an open heath pond with no trees or bushes near. This 

 pond was nearly dry in October and ducks were evidently making 

 havoc of surviving naiads. Both Oakhanger ponds have also 

 gone stone dry. Pyrrhosoma tenellum, Vill., was taken on 24 

 Aug. at a pond in Cranmer Bottom, Woolmer Forest. It was not 

 a very bright day, and it was sitting on the vegetation beside the 

 pond, which is a long one with poor pines growing in bog at one 

 side and open heath on the other. The specimen I took was a 

 male. There was no abundance of them, and when I went again 

 in September there were none to be seen. I noted — C. virgo, 

 Linn., 14 May, Bentley ; C. aenea, Linn., L. depressa, Linn., 

 and P. nymphida, Sulz., on 20 May, the first in fir-wood at 

 Headley Park, the other two at Kingsley ; A. puella, Linn., E. 

 cyathigerum, Charp., P. nymphula, Sulz., and L. quadrimaculata, 

 Linn., on 22 May at Oakhanger; A. imperator, Leach, on 2 

 July at Kingsley ; P. tenellum, Vill., S. scoticum, Don x , L. sponsa, 

 Hans., and E. cyathigerum, Charp., (the last with strangely 

 aberrant marking on abdomen) on 24 August at Cranmer 

 Bottom. 



There seems to be no doubt that the drought affected 

 adversely the dragonflies in the latter part of the season, 

 reducing their numbers and causing their periods to pass by 

 rapidly. Its effect in the present season will be watched with 

 interest by students of our Odonata. 



28, Knight's Park, 



Kingston-on-Thames ; 



April, 1922. 



