761 



ON A COLLECTION OF DRAGONFLIES FROM 



CENTRAL AUSTRALIA, WITH DESCRIPTIONS 



OF NEW SPECIES. 



By R. J. TiLLYARD, M.A., F.E.S. 



(Plate xlii.) 



Up to the present time nothing whatever has been known 

 regarding the Odonata of that vast tract of territory lying east 

 and west of the overland telegraph route from Oodnadatta to 

 Pine Creek. Thanks, however, to the keenness and energy of 

 Mr. J. F. Field, late of Tennant's Creek, N.T., a large number 

 of specimens from that locality have lately been secured. The 

 collection was made during a period of over a year, from Sep- 

 tember, 1905, to December, 1906, and comprises some three 

 hundred specimens. As might be expected in a district with so 

 scanty a rainfall, the number of species is few, yet the collection 

 forms a basis on which to build a knowledge of the Odonata of 

 the most inaccessible region in Australia. 



Tennant's Creek lies well within the Northern Territory, being 

 some six hundred miles inland from Port Darwin, and a some- 

 what farther distance from the South Australian railway terminus 

 at Oodnadatta. Its longitude is approximately 134° E., and its 

 latitude 19° 30' S. Hence it is clear that the Odonata of this 

 locality may be regarded as fairly typical of the va^t area of arid 

 country in Central Australia. Though the locality is well within 

 the tropics, yet the collection exhibits no definite tropical forms; 

 and it is extremely probable that the tropical species which occur 



