DRAGON-FLIES, ETC. 221 



Splendens, is, however, still more remarkable ; the 

 purple in the wings of the male being confined to a 

 large oval blotch in the centre of each wing, the 

 point and base remaining perfectly hyaline or trans- 

 lucent. In this species the neurations of the wings 

 of the male, unlike those of C. Virgo, are much 

 more open than in the wings of the female. In the 

 last-named sex they are in this kind remarkably fine; 

 in other respects the wings are like those of the 

 female of the former species, being of a soft, silky 

 brown tone, and semi-transparent, while the body 

 also is green. This species, like C. Virgo, varies in 

 colour at different ages, the blotches being pale 

 blue while it is young. 



Some of the exotic species of this division of the 

 Dragon-fly family are very splendid, especially the 

 Chinese kinds, which present some very curious 

 anomalies, the anterior and posterior wings being 

 of different colours, as among Moths and Butter- 

 flies. It would be expected that the front-wing in 

 such cases would be the most brilliantly distin- 

 guished by colour, but instead of that the opposite 

 is the case, the front-wings being perfectly trans- 

 parent and colourless, while the hinder pair are of the 

 same kind of solid metallic green or purple as that 

 which distinguishes our own C. Virgo. To mention 



