1908] 
Mnttkorcski, Dragon Flies of Wisconsin. 
63 
der whose direction this paper was prepared, for the many val- 
uable suggestions offered and thankfully accepted. Local lists of 
Odonata from various parts of the United States and Canada, that 
appeared chiefly in the Entomological News and the Canadian En- 
tomologist, the Ohio Naturalist and other periodicals, have fur- 
nished valuable data for the designation of a bounded life zone 
for each species. 
Milwaukee Public ]Mnseiini. 
March 4, 1908. 
ORDER ODONATA. 
Even a perfunctory examination of a collection of Odonata 
will reveal two distinct types of dragon-flies, the one composed of 
small species with equal wings, folded in repose, and long, cylin- 
drical abdomen, the other of larger species with unequal wings, 
extended horizontally in repose, the abdomen tapering, the seg- 
ments of uneven girth. The former type includes timid species 
that flit gracefully among the weeds and rushes of woods and 
waters ; this is the real damsel-fly. The other comprises bolder 
species that haunt the surface of the water, the lower flora of the 
ground as well as higher vegetation. Darting here and there with 
lightning speed, or rustling in the weeds in search of their food, 
they better merit the name of "dragon-fly" than the smaller, 
daintier damsel-fly. On the characteristics just stated is based the 
natural division into suborders : 
1. Wing-s similar in shape, folded in repose; eyes wide apart 
Suborder 
ZYGOPTERA (Damsel-fly). ^ 
2. Wings dissimilar in shape, hind w^ng-s wider at the base, ex- 
tended horizontally in repose, eyes tonching- or but little 
separated ? Suborder 
ANISOPTERA (Dragon-fly). 
The families are separated as follows : 
1. Wings alike, eyes widely separated ; a quadrangle on the basal 
third of the wings 2 
Wings dissimilar, eyes approaching or approximated, a triangle 
on the basal third of the wings 3 
2. Quadrangle of wings crossed, more than two antecubitals 
Calopterygidae 
Quadrangle of fore wings free, two antecubitals only. . . . Agrionidae 
