156 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



these stripes are interrupted, but continuous in the female. The colour of 

 the slender cylindrical abdomen varies with the sex ; in the male it is black, 

 with two blue spots on each segment, and yellow markings at the joints; in 

 the female it is brown with yellow spots instead of blue. 



Both dE.juncea and </E< cyanea have wings measuring three inches ten 

 lines from tip to tip, and a body two inches eight lines in length. JE. gran- 

 dis expands about a sixth of an inch less, but the length of the body is the 

 same. These are the largest of the genus and our finest dragonflies, but 

 there are some others of the genus not nearly so large. JE t praiensis, for 

 instance, only expands two inches ten lines, and has a length of body only 

 two lines over two inches. It has the abdomen spotted with blue in the 

 male and with yellow in the female, and two yellow bands on the thorax at 

 the shoulders : the wings are generally clear, but rather tinged with yellow 

 at the base in the female ; the nervures are reddish,. as is also the long narrow 

 pterostigma. 



In the local ^E, mita the wings expand two lines more than JE. pratensis, 

 and the length of the body is two inches and a third. The brownish black 

 thorax has two yellow spots in front, and two bands of the same colour at the 

 sides, the abdomen is similar in colour to the thorax, and spotted with dark 

 blue in the male and with yellow in the female. The male has the wings 

 clear, in the female they are light brown ; both sexes have the pterostigma 

 dark. Another local species (/E* rufescens) occurring in the south of Eng- 

 land has a brown abdomen with only one yellow spot on the dorsal part near 

 the base. There are two yellow bands on the brown thorax, and these are 

 all the markings there are on the body. The wings are clear but rather 

 reddish brown, the pterostigma is ochreous. The length of the body is two 

 inches, and a half, the expanse of wings three inches and a third. 



In the south of England, at this time of the year, one of the finest of the 

 British dragonflies Anaxformosus, occurs : I believe Bournemouth is one of 

 its localities. The genus to which it belongs differs from JEschna in having 

 the anal angle of the hind-wings rounded in both sexes instead of being so in 

 the female only, as is the case in the dragonflies just mentioned. They are 

 clear and broad, with the accessory membrane dark at the narrow part and 

 white at the base ; the very narrow pterostigma differs in colour in the sexes 

 being dark in the male, and ochreous in the female. The bright blue 

 abdomen is rather broad and depressed and in the male is narrowed near the 

 base ; it has a black pattern on the back. The thorax is bright green, in 

 size it about the same as JEschna grandis, but the expanse of wings is 

 greater, equalling that of juncea and JE. cyanea. 



