46 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



PSEUDOMACROMIA NATALENSIS AND MERUENSIS (ODONATA;. 



BY S. G. RICH, 

 Durban, Natal, South Africa. 



The present paper arises from the peculiarities of a specimen of Pseudo- 

 macromia collected by me at Edendale, Natal, on Nov. 12, 1918, and now in 

 my collection. The specimen is a female, measuring abdomen including ap- 

 pendages 40 mm., hind wing 43 mm., fore wing 43 mm., both pterostigmas 3 mm. 



The specimen has the following features of interest. Lower lip yellow 

 brown on side lobes, with centre lobe black and a black rim on the mesal edge 

 of each side lobe. Upper lip bordered with very dark brown. Across frons 

 immediately above lip, a dull greenish band about 1 mm. wide. Top of frons 

 steel blue. Vertex brown, w^ith traces of steel blue. Both wings flavescent 

 from beneath stigma mesally, the fore wing until one cell from nodus, the hind 

 wing half way to nodus; this is a vague cloudy flavescence except at the costal 

 border of the fore wing. There is a very faint flavescence extending to the 

 first cross-vein under the subcosta and the cubitus of the fore wing, and a stronger 

 flavescence in the same place and four cells closest to the membranule in the 

 hind wings. The abdomen has the first two segments yellow-brown with a 

 thin, black band, marking the end of segment 2; segment 3 has a thin-lined 

 yellowish cross on the back, on an otherwise dark ground ; the other segments 

 are dark brown with narrow, dull yellow markings along the sides. The mem- 

 branule of the wings is grayish, becoming cream-coloured at its costal end. 



Barring the head details and the basal flavescence of the fore wing, the 

 specimen agrees with Martin's original description of P. natalensis female 

 (Bull, du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, 1900, p. 106). 



In the Selys Catalogue, Fasc. XIV, p. 805, there is given in brackets the 

 species P. meruensis, from Kilmandjaro, East Africa. This, described as 

 Homothemis meriiensis by Sjostedt, 1909, was not in the Selys collection, but 

 Dr. Ris quotes the original description and assigns it to the genus Pseiido- 

 macromia. The present specimen agrees equally with this description, more 

 especially as to the lips, frons, colouring of legs, and wing-flavescence. The 

 dimensions are as in this description. 



In view of the fact that the description of P. meriiensis is based upon a 

 single specimen, and that no others of this species are recorded in the Selys 

 catalogue, I am strongly of the opinion that the two species are identical. P. 

 natalensis is recorded from as far north as Macequece, Portuguese East Africa, 

 in the Selys catalogue, and it is not unreasonable to expect that it would be 

 found in the highlands of East Africa nearer the equator. 



Martin's original description of P. natalensis is, except for the lips, and the 

 cross-mark upon the back of the abdomen, identical with Sjostedt's of P. 

 meriiensis. The synonymy of these two species may be taken as highly probable, 

 if not established. 



It may be of additional value in this connection to mention the character- 

 istics of a specimen of P. natalensis, in the collection of the Durban Museum, 

 Natal. The specimen is a female, taken at Umbilo, one of the suburbs of 

 Durban. It agrees w^ith my specimen in possessing all the features which 

 would show the identity of P. natalensis and P, meruensis. The flavescence 



February, 1921 



