Of1nnf or DragonjHe* of South Afrlr,,. 289 



same as in many members of the "Legion Platycnemis." On tin- 

 other hand, in Metacnemis the configuration of the quadrilateral, with 

 its distal side slightly more oblique and sensibly strengthened, together 

 with origin of Cn '2, the origin of A* unusually proximal to Cnq, are 

 features extraneous to the other group of three genera ; the head of 

 MetftrHcmis is much more of the Agrion- than of the Platycnemis- 

 type, being broad in the frontal part, with the eyes not excessively 

 prominent ; the femoral and tibial spines are very long in Metacnemis. 

 Thus for the purpose of this paper we have adopted the subdivisions 

 as given by de Selys ; we give the genera Allocnemis, Chlorocnemis 

 and Disparoneura in an apparently natural order, and plaice Metacnemis 

 in the immediate line with the true " Agrioii." 



Of our genera, Ischnura and Enallayma alone are known in the 

 larval stage from Europe and America. Plate XII, fig. 2, photo- 

 graphed from living full-grown larvae of the European Platycnemis 

 pennipes, may give a general idea of Agrionine larvae of the opaque 

 type. This opaque type exists, to a large extent independently of 

 systematic position, whenever a nymph lives on the bottom of water, 

 partly covered by mud, detritus or algae ; Platycnemis pennipes is the 

 truest representative form of this type in the European fauna. At 

 the opposite pole, as the truest representative of the transparent larval 

 type, we have Enallagma cyatJiigerum larvae not living at the bottom 

 of the water, in the living green plants and wonderfully adapted to 

 this surrounding by colour, pattern and transparency. 



ALLOCNEMIS (Selys, 1863). 



The South African species is not recorded from beyond our faunal 

 limits, and but one other species of this genus (unknown to the writer) 

 is described from tropical West Africa. 



ALLOCNEMIS LEUCOSTICTA (Selys, 1863). 



S. Afr. Mus. : 2 cJ, 1 9 , Waterval (3, 26 . ii . 1899) ; 1 <?, Groen- 

 vleikloof (6 . i . 1907) ; 8^,69, Barberton, Transvaal ; 6 ^ , 2 ? , 

 2 $ 9 in cnp., M'Fougosi, Zululand (iii, iv, v, xi . 1911, VV. E. Jones). 

 Brit. Mus. : 1 <J, 1 9 , Estcourt, Natal, Will Brook (i, ii . 1913, E. C. 

 Wroughtou). Coll. K. J. Morton: 1 $ , Stutterheim, Cape Colony 

 (9 . i . 1908, Miss Fountaine) ; 2 J, Barberton, Transvaal (18, 

 20 . xi . 1908, id.). Coll. E. B. Williamson : 6 <J , 1 9 , Princetown, 

 Natal (23-27 . ii . 1909, G-. F. Leigh). 



d (adult). Labium whitish, the points of lateral lobes black. Occiput 



