Random Notes on Natural History. 



167 



ARTICLE XVII— RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL 

 HISTORY. 



By Charges Dury. 



A. ODONATA. 



At the request of the late Professor Kellicott, of Columbus, 

 I have made a collection of these beautiful insects in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of Cincinnati. I began in the summer of 

 1897, too late for the early species. Early in 1898 a few of 

 the GomphincE were taken, but during the spring of 1899 con- 

 ditions were so unfavorable that little could be done. This 

 will account for the small number of species of this sub-fam- 

 ily in the following list of Cincinnati dragon flies. The lo- 

 cality seems to be quite rich in species of Odonata, sixty-two 

 having been identified to this date. Many of them have 

 been observed in Spring Grove Cemetery, our beautiful, well- 

 kept city of the dead, whose lakes of pure water are ideal 

 breeding places for these insects. The lakes are stocked 

 with bass and other fish, which devour immense quantities of 

 both nymphs and imagos. As the dragon flies skim along 

 above the surface of the water the large-mouthed bass follow 

 them around trying to snap them up when they touch the 

 water in ovipositing. The eggs of many species, when ex- 

 truded, adhere to the tip of the abdomen. By the motion of 

 the female, as she touches the water in flight, the eggs are 

 washed off and settle to the bottom, where they hatch. I 

 have seen the female snatched away from the male by a 

 hungry bass, as they were flying in couple, at the instant 

 she attempted to drop her eggs. The nymphs of the dragon 

 flies are insatiable in their voracity. On August 22, 1898, I 

 brought home a lot, and fed one of them a bit of earthworm, 

 which it seized with its jaws crossways; it turned it with its 

 forefeet and swallowed it entire. In two days the nymphs 

 had eaten each other up until only the largest one remained. 



Under favorable conditions these insects breed in vast 



(Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XIX, No. 5.) I 



Printed January 4, 1900. 



