vertex, with an ocellus on each side of it, and another of larger size in front; the central lobe of the labium much smaller than the lateral ones; abdomen as broad as the thorax, or nearly so. Larva and nymph aquatic, the body short and rather thick, with five appendages at the hinder extremity; respiration through the tail.
LIBELLULA QUADRIMACULATA.
Plate XXVII. Fig. 1.
Linn. Donovan's Brit. Ins. XI. Pl. 407. Samouelle's Compendium, Pl. 7, fig. 1.
We give this as a British example of the genus; besides it, about eight others are found in this country. It is not one of the largest size, its dimensions scarcely equalling those of the more common L. depressa. The general colour is reddish brown, the wings transparent, and each of them with a large brown patch at the base, and another of smaller size beyond the middle. This species was long regarded as rare, but since the investigation of our indigenous insects came to be more attended to, it has been found not unfrequently in nearly all parts of the country. In the neighbourhood of Edinburgh it occurs at Duddingston Loch, among the Pentland Hills, and elsewhere.
LIBELLULA PORTIA.
Plate XXVII. Fig. 2.
Drury's Ex. Ins. II. Pl. 47, fig. 3. L. Marginata, Fabr. Ent. Syst.
This small and finely coloured species is a native of
