NOTES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF NAIADS BELONGING TO 

 THE DRAGONFLY GENUS HELOCORDULIA. 



By Clarence Hamilton Kennedy, 



Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 



The writer saw his first and only living HelocorduUa selysii 

 (Hagen) one bright March day, when Prof. Simon Marion and he 

 were taking an early spring tramp through the woods of the 

 Raleigh (N. C.) Country Club. Vegetation was beginning to de- 

 velop a little green here and there, but the shrubs and trees were 

 still bare. Early flies and beetles were out enjoying the spring 

 sunshine, but the writer was not expecting to find Odonata. Sud- 

 denly a dragonfly arose from the forest path and flew leisurely down 

 into a neighboring hollow— apparently' an extra early Tetragoneuna. 

 On capturing it the writer felt a glow of satisfaction as it had the 

 speckled wings of the rare Tetragoneuria petechialis, a little-known 

 southern species, though its black and yellow coloration struck the 

 writer as being odd for that genus. Later in the laboratory the 

 true worth of the catch was disclosed when the specimen was identi- 

 fied as the very rare HelocorduUa selysii. 



Professor Marion and the writer continued their steps 50 yards 

 farther, down a gentle slope to the shore of the artificial pond of the 

 Country Club grounds, and on the side of a small boathouse found 

 a single Odonate exuvium. It was identified later as a HelocorduUa^ 

 but not the species uhleri found in the Northeastern States. No 

 other Odonate was seen, so it was concluded that the teneral speci- 

 men caught in the woods was probably the individual that had 

 emerged from this exuvium. 



HelocorduUa selysii is one of our rarest American Odonata 

 Probably few more than a dozen specimens exist in collections. 

 C. S. Brimley, who has collected Odonata continuously for 20 years 

 in various parts of North Carolina, has recorded ^ less than 12 

 captures. Because of this extreme rarity our knowledge of its 



' Brimley, North Carolina Records of Odonata in 1903, Ent. News, March, 1904, pp. 

 100-102. 



Brimley, North Carolina Records of Odonata hi 1904 and 1905, Ent. News,, March, 1906, 

 pp. 91-92. 



Brimley, Records of North Carolina Odonata from 1908-1917. 



No. 2502. — Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 64. Art. 12. 



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