9 ° 
Dragon-flies and Damsel-flies 
Fig. 122.—The black wing, Calopteryx 
maculata. 
(brownish in freshly moulted, or teneral specimens), and a long, slender body, 
of striking metallic blue or green. The females can be distinguished from 
the males by their possession of a milk-white pterostigma (Fig. 121). These 
beautiful “black wings” are found in gentle fluttering flight, usually along 
'small streams in woods or meadows. The female lays her eggs “among 
the rubbish and mud along the 
borders of ditches,” and the 
nymphs found in the ditches 
and streamlets have the middle 
one of the three caudal gills flat 
and shorter than the other two. 
Kellicott has seen the males of 
this species fight fiercely with 
each other. “Two will fly about 
each other, evidently with con¬ 
suming rage, when one finally 
appears to have secured a posi¬ 
tion of advantage and darts at 
his enemy, attempting, often suc¬ 
cessfully, to tear and damage 
his wings.” 
The best known representative of the other genus is a perfect master¬ 
piece of insect beauty and grace. Entomologists know it as Hetcerina 
americana (Fig. 123); I suggest that we call it the “ruby-spot,” although 
only the males bear the gem. The head and thorax of the males are 
coppery red, the abdomen me¬ 
tallic green to coppery, and the 
basal fourth of each of the long, 
slender, and otherwise clear wings 
is bright blood-red. In the females 
the whole body is metallic green, 
with the basal third of the wings 
pale yellowish brown. These dam¬ 
sel-fly beauties are shy and retiring, 
rarely venturing more than a few 
feet away from the willow-overhung 
bank of their favorite swift-running 
stream. Sometimes hundreds of 
them come together and cling in 
graceful festoons to the drooping willow branches. Then they look like 
strings of rubies, or of warm red flowers or seeds. 
The family Agrionidas includes the host of slender-bodied, narrow- and 
Fig. 123.—The ruby-spot, Hetcerina 
americana. 
