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Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



the number of species is decreasing as a consequence of the 

 profound changes due to more complete occupation of the 

 country by civilized man, it is impossible to know. In all 

 probability, the draining of swamps and ponds, the resulting 

 disappearance, in Summer, of former perennial streams, and 

 the contamination of others, will, sooner or later, produce a 

 material reduction. 



The common names of the adults are often as striking 

 as the forms themselves. In the .central and southern 

 sections they are almost universally known as " snake- 

 feeders;" in the north and northwest, as "spindles;" in the 

 northeast they are often " devil's darning-needles." Still, any 

 one of these, and others, may be heard in any section. 

 Among the less common designations may be mentioned the 

 following : " horse stingers," " mosquito hawks," and "dragon- 

 flies." The last, used more or less everywhere, is, by far, the 

 most desirable. It expresses so aptly and happily the char- 

 acteristics of these veritable dragons of the air. No insects 

 possess a more pronounced individuality than the Dragon- 

 flies ; hence, none appeal more strongly to the imagination. 

 Their graceful forms, brilliant colors, and arrow-like flight at 

 once arrest attention and hold the interest ; it is, therefore, 

 not surprising that they have received so man}' and such 

 poetic names. It has been said that " some of these names 

 testify to the wide-spread, but quite unfounded, belief in the 

 harmfulness of these creatures to man." The writer recalls 

 at least one grown person who truly believed they were harm- 

 ful. This was a school teacher, who impressed upon him, and 

 others of her charge, that the devil's darning-needles about 

 the " old swimmin' hole " were dangerous, and that they were 

 quite determined to sew up the ears of truants who sought 

 the limpid waters and grass-covered banks of the millrace, 

 rather than the hard and strict ways of the prosy school- 

 room. This is the one " fact" of Natural History he remem- 

 bers to have been taught him in the " district" school. 



In the catalogue a statement of such biological facts as 

 have been observed will be made under the title of each spe- 

 cies, together with additional information at hand which it is 

 thought may prove useful for future comparison. Neither 

 bibliography nor synopsis of systematic arrangement is 



