July, '08] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 3OI 



Three related American species of Aeshna (Odonata). 



BY E. B. WILLIAMSON. 



(Continued from page 264) 



Aeshna multicolor Hagen. 



It is unnecessary to repeat descriptions and bibliographical 

 references (see Calvert, Biol. Cent. Amer., Neur., p. 183). The 

 range of the species is from Panama through the Mexican high- 

 lands into the Southern United States (headwaters of the Rio 

 Grande and Pecos), and along the Pacific coast from Lower 

 California to Victoria and Kootenay, British Columbia. Mr. 

 Henshaw has kindly sent me photographs of five specimens 

 labelled multicolor in the Hagen collection. As I surmised 

 from the venation and as Professor Walker has recently 

 certainly determined, two specimens, one from the Upper Mis- 

 souri and one from the Yellowstone, represent two other 

 species than multicolor. A male from Toluca, Mexico, collected 

 by Dr. Calvert is here referred to multicolor. The T-spot on 

 the fros is slightly wider, the first lateral thoracic stripe is 

 somewhat narrower, the thorax is less robust, and the inferior 

 appendage is shorter (not reaching the apex of the dorsal carina 

 of the superiors) than in typical multicolor. The dorsal thor- 

 acic stripes, the color of abdomen, so far as can be definitely 

 determined, and the superior appendages are typical multicolor. 



As to the habits of multicolor little has been published. Mr. 

 Currie (Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., Vol. V, 1903, pages 299 and 

 300) has described the conditions at Williams and Winslow 

 where multicolor was taken. From the coloration and robust 

 form one might infer that multicolor is a sun-loving species, 

 on the wing during the hottest part of the day, and frequenting 

 still bodies of .water (ponds or marshes). 



Aeshna mutata Hagen. 



Since its description (Neur. N. Amer. p. 124) by Hagen, no 

 further attempt was made to identify this species until it was 

 placed as a synonym under multicolor by Calvert in Biol. Cent. 

 Amer. Neur., p. 183. Mr. Henshaw kindly sent me a photo- 

 graph of the type (an imperfect female) which I identified as 



