igzo. Langham. — Son:e Irish Records of Dragon/lies. ii 



SOME IRISH RECORDS OF DRAGONFLIES. 



BY SIR CHARLES LANGHAM, BART. 



The following species of Odonata were taken during the 

 summer of 1919, either within a mile of Woodenbridge, 

 Co. Wicklow, or within a radius of half a mile of Tempo, 

 Co. Fermanagh : — 



Sympetrum striolatum. — Very common on the bogs around Tempo during 

 August, but very few males were seen with the red body colour until 

 the latter end of month. 



Sympetrum SCOlicum. — Very common on the bogs around Tempo, during 

 the latter end of July and in August ; but few males had assumed 

 the black body colour until far into August. 



Libellula quadrimaculata. — Very common at Tempo, both on the bogs 

 and marshy fields and flying over the lakes. One was captured 

 which has the spots much enlarged and somewhat suffused. They 

 began to appear in May and continued until late July ; one or two 

 seen even in the beginning of August. 



Orthetrum caerulescens. — Yeiy common in June, about a mile from 

 Woodenbridge, up a valley which had many wet and swampy 

 fields in it. When first seen on June 8th there were not many out, 

 and no blue-bodied males were noticed, but towards the end of the 

 month the blue-bodied males were very numerous, especially in one 

 very boggy field. 



Brachytron pratense. — On June the 15th one was seen flying in a wood, 

 close to the Woodenbridge hotel, but it evaded capture ; however 

 the next day one was seen sitting on the ground in the same wood, 

 and was duly captured, and the following day another was taken, 

 curiously enough on the same spot, also resting on the ground and 

 at precisely the same hour of the day, namely one o'clock. 



Aeschna juncea. — One of this species was taken at Woodenbridge in 

 June. At Tempo it is one of the commonest dragonflies, appearing 

 generally early in July and often seen on the wing up till the end 

 of September. The colours of this species fade rapidly after death, 

 but by very carefully cleaning out the viscera through a slit in the 

 body, before setting, the colours are less likely to disappear. This 

 cleaning out process is fairly easy in the larger species, but the smaller 

 blue dragonflies are too slender to allow of this being done. 



Aeschna grandis. — This appears to be rather a scarce species in Ireland, 

 but it is a very common insect at Tempo, in fact it and Ac. jiincea 

 are usually in about the same numbers. It appears rather later 

 than juncea, and continues somewhat longer into the autumn. 

 The males are always much more numerous than the females. 



