NEUROPTERA 693 



nervules dark and with darker suffusion at their sides, especially the outer series. The 

 dilated costal cells form the clearest part of the wing, beyond the outer gradate nervules 

 the mottling is sparse but there is a marginal series of five or six conspicuous pale spots, 

 widely separated from one another, extending from the apical on to the dorsal margins. 

 There is a large basal area between the radius and dorsal margin of a generally darker 

 colour than the rest of the wing, forming a large blotch, angulated below and more or 

 less curved above, where it is broken by pale spaces about the cubital nervures. About 

 its angle it is uniformly dark. Hind wings smoky hyaline, iridescent, with a con- 

 spicuously darker smoky area along the dorsal margin, on the basal third or fourth of 

 the wingf length. 



Front wings rounded at the tips, apical margin not at all excised, costa strongly 

 curved on its basal part, where the costal cells are unusually high. Six sectors to the 

 radius. Apical segment of the abdomen raised or somewhat bent back, angulately 

 emarginate in dorsal aspect, the appendices in side view elongate triangular, bluntly 

 pointed, conspicuously clothed with curved hairs, extending far beyond the apical 

 ventral segment. Male: expanse 15 mm. 



Hab. Oahu ; mountains near Honolulu, 1500 ft. 



ODONATA. 

 Fam. AGRIONIDAE. 



The Hawaiian species referred to the genus Agrion, I believe, are none of them 

 really referable to that genus, and the species though apparently all allied to one another, 

 yet themselves form a number of groups. Probably in the hands of a specialist the 

 whole will form a peculiar genus, with several subgenera. I have previously spoken of 

 the great variability exhibited by the various species, and were it not for the characters 

 shown by the terminal appendages of abdomen in the $, the difficulty of separating the 

 species would be intense. Having now examined many more specimens from the 

 different islands, I am the more convinced of the extreme importance of these characters. 

 In many species, if one only had the extreme forms, one would certainly consider these 

 to form distinct species, but when one has large series, especially from different localities 

 and different islands, one finds that the apparently strong distinctions between extremes, 

 apart from those afforded by the appendages, all vary and intermediate forms occur. 

 Characters usually considered of specific, or even of more than specific importance, 

 whether of colour, size, neuration, etc. all vary and one is finally driven to the male 

 structures to find constant characters. 



The following tabulation is probably a fairly natural grouping of the species that I 

 have examined. It is based on the male characters. 



89—2 



