NEUROPTERA. 
53 
large kinds of these insects ? Who has not often had 
his attention arrested, when wandering by the rippling 
stream with tapering rod and treacherous flies attached, 
a large insect of glossy green flits by, the sunshine 
glittering on his burnished body ? And who has not 
admired ? This is the demoiselle Dragon-fly ( Calopteryx 
virgo), than which a more lovely object can scarcely be 
met with in the whole world of insect life. The body 
is nearly two inches long, very slender, now dark steel- 
blue, now emerald-green—you cannot tell which for 
more than a moment—for the glancing sunbeams now 
give one colour, now another, to the burnished surface ; 
the wings are large and gauze-like, with a large dark spot 
on each. This is the male. His partner is grass-green 
in colour, the wings are of a rich gold, and there are no 
dark spots. 
The Libellididce are generally divided into two large 
groups, the Agrionides and the Libellidides ; in the 
former the head is set transversely to the body, giving 
it a hammer-like appearance, the eyes are wide apart, 
the wings when at rest meet back to back over the 
insect’s body. In the latter, the head is large and 
globular, the eyes are immense and almost meet; the 
wings when at rest are always extended. To the 
Agrionides belong the genera Calopteryx and Agrion ; 
to the Libellidides , the genera Libelhda , JEshna, Anax , 
etc. 
In Plate II., Fig. 2, will be seen a figure of an insect 
of the genus Agrion ; it is the A. minium or vermilion- 
red Dragon-fly. Thousands of these delicate little 
insects, with abdomens not thicker than a darning 
needle, some blue tinted, others red or some other 
