DRAGONFLY COLLEOTING IN INDIA. 
891 
and I am always pleased to identify and return specimens sent to me for that 
pm'pose through the medium of the Bombay Natural History Society. 
Literature on the subject is extremely scattered, many of the most important 
works now being out of print. Descriptions of Indian species have to bo sifted 
out of a great mass of literature, mostly papers in Journals or Works on the 
world’s dragonflies written in a foreign language and many of these difficult 
or impossible to obtain. Descriptions of Indian species will be found in the 
following works 
Rambur, Ins. Nevrop., published in 1842. 
Baron Edmond de Selys’ ISIonographs on the Gomphines and Calopterygines, 
published in 1857 and 1854 respectively. 
By the same author, the S3mopses on the Calopterygines, Gom pliines, Aesch- 
nines and Agrionines, published from 1850 to 1876. 
Dr. Ris’ monumental work on the Libellulince, Cat. Coll, de Selys, IX- 
XVI, and his addenda, published from 1909-1916. 
Martin’s companion work on the Aeschnines and Cordulines, Cat. Coll, de 
Selys, published in 1909. 
Dr. Laidlaw’s notes on Indian Dragonflies, published in the Records, Lidian 
Museum, continuously from 1914 to 1921. 
Williamson’s Dragonflies of Burma and Siam, Gomphines and Calopterygines, 
published in the Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1904. 
“ Indian Dragonflies,” a series of articles which have been appearmg in 
this Journal since 1918. 
Lastly there are a number of individual descriptions which have appeared 
in numerous journals at Home and abroad by distinguished entomologists like 
Kirby, MacLachlan, Karsch, Calvert, Brauer, Hagen, Charpentier and others. 
For purposes of identification however this literature will be superfluous 
if the amatem’ will only take the trouble to master a few necessary terms, the 
employment of which is essential in describing dragonflies. A knowledge of these 
terms will enable anyone to work out for himself the identifleation of any spe- 
cies by employing the key given at the end of this paper. 
Having dealt with the seeming drawbacks of dragonfly collecting, let me now 
say something in compensation of the pursuit. 
(i) Dragonflies can be handled with impunity without fear of rubbing off 
their beautiful plumage, there are no coloured scales for careless handling to 
remove, and a cyanide bottle can be filled to the brim and emptied out at the 
end of the day without revealing a mass of mangled and spoilt specimens. 
(ii) They are far swifter and more cunning and wary on the wing than butter- 
flies and to those who possess the instincts of the shikari or fisherman will afford 
abundant sport. In 1917 when on War leave in Coonoor I used to run 
*clo-wn daily to Kallar at the foot of the Nilgiris. It was here that I one day 
spotted a dragonfly (Onychothemis tonkinensis ) which had not hitherto been 
taken within Indian limits. I failed to take it on the first day but saw it near 
the same sjiot on the following and again failed to secure it. On the third day 
I once more put it up and after wading about up to my hips in the Kallar river 
for the best part of two hours finally succeeded in taking it. Approaching it 
from behmd, it would wait until I was about five yards off and would then move 
up stream for some thirty yards. When I was almost within striking distance 
agam, it would take a chakar round me and move off do-wn stream again tc 
its original resting place. Struggling deep in the water, barking my shins on 
submerged rocks or tripping over them, hot and perspiring, I at length secui’ed 
my specimen by stooping under the overhangmg Ian tana bordering the stream 
and working my way steadily towards the insect until I was directly under it. 
Experience has taught me that dragonflies can sec very little below them and I 
took this particular one with a swift upward stroke. I probably spent four hours 
on the successive days stalking this specimen which is the only one that has been 
seen or taken within Indian limits. What finer and more exciting sport could one 
desire than this ? And you have something unique to show for it at the end 
