PHILIP P. CALVERT 367 



Lepthemis attala. (49.) P. 265. June 15, 1889. Erythemis verbenata 



(Hagen) =E. plebeja (Burm.). 

 Libellula attala Selys Cub. p. 1S7. 



La he encontrado en los contornos de Cardenas. 



I have compared an adult male and an adult female of ver- 

 benata Hagen from Havana, taken by Baker; and one male from 

 Rio, Brazil, one female from Cuba, taken by Gundlach, 1866, of 

 attala Selys (as I have understood these two species)^^ with Gund- 

 lach's description. His account of the male applies almost 

 equally well to verbenata cf and to attala cf , that of the female 

 better to the 9 of verbenata. Gundlach, however, does not give 

 any dimensions of his own specimens, does not describe the shape 

 of the abdomen, nor does he say anything of the wings, so that 

 it is not certain on which species he actuall}^ based his descrip- 

 tion. His description of the female appears to be inaccurate, 

 even allowing for his usual view that the abdomen consists of 

 twelve segments, when he says: "los 80. y lOo. [segmentos 

 abdominales] tienen una mancha ceniciento-olivada, interrumpida 

 por la linea intermedia, negra; siendo el principio de cada 

 segmento pardo-olivado; los dos liltimos segmentos son negros"; 

 . . . It is the last three (eight, nine and ten of the usual 

 nomenclature) that are blackish. 



In his synonymy he follows Hagen (1875) in uniting attala 

 Selys and verbenata Hagen, and, after giving his own description, 

 discussed above, says: "Estas son las descripciones tomadas de 

 ejemplares vistos y clasificados por el Sr. Hagen como L. verbenata, 

 pero la descripcion dada por Hagen en su Synopsis difiere, pues 

 traducida es" [and then follows a translation into Spanish from 

 p. 162]. 



"El Sr. Selys Longchamp da la descripcion como sigue en la 

 obra de la Sagra: . . ." [What follows is a translation of 

 Hagen's paraphrase (1861, p. 172) of Selys' description in the 

 French edition of de la Sagra, p. 445; whether it is a verbatim 

 copy of the description in the Spanish edition I can not say.] 



On the basis of my description^^ of Burmcister's type of Libel- 

 lula plebeja, Dr. His''^ refers verbenata Hagen to plebeja Burmeister. 

 He is probably correct. 



^' Biologia Centr-Amer,, Neur., p. 330. 



*^ Trans. Anier. Ent. Soc, xxv, p. 78. 



«Cat. Coll. Zool. Selys, Libell., fasc. xiii, pp. 603-604, 1911. 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC, XLV. 

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