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THE FEMALE OF THE DRAGONFLY, BRACHYTHEMIS 

 FU!SCOPALLIATA (Pas). 



BY 



C.TT. F. C. Fkaskr, I. M. S. 



{With a riaU') 



The male has been described by Ris and also hy Seh's and 

 Kirby nnder the synonyms of Trithemis fuscopalliata and Cacerijatps 

 fuscopalliata respectiveh'. The description by Ris in 1910 states 

 that the female is unknown and his description of the male, made 

 from dried specimens, is not complete. In March of this year, I 

 took a fair number of specimens above Abadan on the iShat-el-Arab 

 which Avere all males and a few daj's later secured four females at 

 the month of a creek opposite Basra. They are very sh}^ insects 

 and keep well out in the stream, so that it was only by wading oat 

 up to the hips that the specimens were secured. 



Male. (Amplified from the description by Ris.) 



Expanse 58 mm. Length 38 mm. Pterostigma 2-5 mm. 



[lead of moderate size : eyes contiguous for a very sliorfc 

 distance, dark-brown, almost black above, sej^ia tint beneath : 

 occipital triangle small, strongly rounded posteriorly : epistome 

 strongly rounded, witliout a marked, free border : sutures practi- 

 cally flush : vesicle high and narrow, deeply notched above and in 

 front : occiput, ^'esicle, and upper part of clypeus dark brown A\ith 

 a black streak across the lower part of the latter : labrum and 

 labium 3'ellow. 



Prothorax hidden almost entirely beneath the head, the posterior 

 lobe small and rounded. Black. 



Thorax nroderately robust, downy with a ruff of longer liairs 

 along the dorsal anterior border which meet and interlace with a 

 ring of cilia3 projecting backward from the rim of the occipital 

 cavity. Colour uniformly black with a patch of ferruginous at the 

 attachment of the wings on the side. Le<js fairly long, black, tli<^ 

 outer surfaces of tibitB striped with yellow. Femoras 3, with a row 

 of stout spines gradually lengthening from the middle : femora^ 2, 

 similar but the spines fewei' in number : tibial spines numerous, 

 fine and moderately long: claw-hooks tj^pical. 



Ahdomeii short, tumid at the base, gradually tapering towards 

 the extremity, depressed in the posterior f and strongly keeled in 

 the posterior ^. 4th segment with a transverse ridge near the pro- 

 ximal end. (Ris' description has apparently been made from speci- 

 mens distoi'ted by compression in paper.) Uniformly black in colour. 



Wings short and rounded, reticulation close, sub-trigone in fore- 

 wing entire, or partially or entirely traversed by a strongly curved 

 nervure. Antenodal nervin-es 0^-7^ in the forewing, 5 in the hind : 

 trio-one in forewinp; entire : sectors of the arc in forewino- fused 

 throughout but a short distance, in hind throughout a long distance : 



