764 COLLECTION OF DRAGQNFLIES FROM CENTRAL AUSTRALIA, 



dull bluish or greyish; sutures of 2-7 broadly black : 8 with no 

 dorsal line, but a pair of tiny black dorsal spots, a pale trans- 

 verse band in the sutures of 7 and 8: 9 unmarked: 10 with basal 

 third irregularly black, rest pale greyish or brownish. Ovipositor 

 brownish, carrying two short filaments. Appendages 0-6 mm., 

 wide apart, narrow subconical, pale brownish, tips slightly 

 darker. 



Hab. — Tennant's Creek, N.T.; common round the waterholes; 

 September-April. Probably widely distributed in Central 

 Australia. 



This species is very closely allied to Lestes leda Selys, and to 

 L. analis Rambur, especially the latter. The male ma}'' be 

 readily distinguished from all other Australian species of the 

 genus by the last two segments of the abdomen being pale blue. 

 The female would be difficult to separate from those of the above- 

 mentioned species, except for the small slanting dorsal black 

 marks on segments 3-8, which, however, are not always ver}- 

 conspicuous in dried specimens. The appendages of the male 

 differ considerably from those of L. analis, male, being smaller, 

 and not bent backwards at all at the tips (Plate xlii., figs.3-4). 

 The young insects appear to have the orange-pink colour of young 

 specimens of L. analis, especially on the notum; and it is probable 

 that the blue colour of the living insect, is very pale, as in L. 

 analis, and not rich blue as in L. leda. 



Abdomen of both sexes short and rather thick. Superior 

 appendages of male straight, inferior forcipate and projecting 

 beyond superior. Wings petiolate to the level of the second 

 antenodal; inferior sector of triangle absent. Basal postco.-tal 

 nervule plaxed further from base of loing than the first antenodal. 

 Superior sector of triangle terminating well beyond the vein 

 descending from the nodus, forming three large cells and one 

 small one along the postcostal margin. Median sector arising 

 slightly before the nodal cross-vein. Postnodals 7-9. 



