INDIAN DRAGONFLIES. 



921 



Fig. 49. 



--Wings of Tritheinis aurora aurora showing ueuration. 



Expanse 50 to ho mm. Length 32 to 3o mm. 



Male : Head : eyes bright red or crimson above, brown at the sides and 

 lilaceous beneath : occiput brown ; vesicle and upper part of forehead a 

 glossy, metallic red with an iridescent bluish sheen ; ejiistome ochreous 

 or reddish, labrum and. labium yellow, both bordered variably with black. 



Prothoras black with an ashy collar anteriorly. 



Thorax purple or crimson with a bluish pruinescence on the dorsum, 

 laterally a golden brown in the adults or bright yellow in teneral forms 

 marked with three parallel, black stripes, the first midway beween the 

 humeral region and the spiracle, the second over the spiracle and the third 

 over the metepimeron. Often these three are joined at about their middle 

 by an irregular horizontal stripe. The dorsum is edged with a black, 

 humeral stripe. 



Legs ferrugiuovis above, black beneath. 



Wings hyaline, the reticulation crimson as far as stigma. The basal 

 spot golden brown with red reticulation and darker brown rays in the 

 inferior costal and cubital spaces. The latter rays are also present in the 

 forewings. The basal spot of hindwing variable in extent, usually extend- 

 ing as far as trigone and may or may not reach the tornus. Antenodal 

 nervures variable ; in five consecutive specimens examined, they numbered 

 13^, 14f, 15^, 11^ and 10^. Stigma small, bright crimson bordered heavily 

 with black. 



Abdomen crimson with a bluish pruinescence. A black, lateral spot on 

 the 10th segment. Base slightly dilated, then constricted and then 

 markedly fusiform, and depressed. In some specimens there is an addi- 

 tional black mark on the sides of the 9th segment, but this and the marK 

 on the 10th are very variable in extent. Anal appendages red, the superior 

 having the tips black. 



Sexual organs : male : lamina broad and depressed, notched shallowly in 

 the middle ; internal tentaculse attenuated and curving outwards : external 

 not marked ; the lobe narrow and relatively long. 



Male teneral form. 



