GOMPHUS PARVIDENS, A NEW SPECIES OF DRAGON- 

 FLY FROM MARYLAND. 



By Bertha P. Currie, 



0/ the Bureau of Entomology, United .States Department of Agriculture, 



Washington. 



The new species described herein was collected in a field along the 

 Anacostia River just west of the Laurel and Berwyn trolley line. 

 Here the river, in some places only a few yards wide, meanders for 

 some distance through weedy fields. The banks, in some places low 

 and level and in others from one to several feet high and abrupt, 

 are bordered here and there with trees of a low gi-owth. The stream' 

 is broken in places by rapids or riffles and here and there, during low 

 water, are bars of sand or gravel. It was a cloudy afternoon in late 

 May, and the only dragonflies secured were a few specimens of 

 Ischnura posita and the single Gomphus on which this description 

 is based. 



My thanks are due to Mr. E. B. Williamson, of Bluffton, Indiana, 

 for reading the manuscript of this paper and contributing valuable 

 suggestions. 



GOMPHUS PARVIDENS. new species. 



Male.— Lo^n^h. of abdomen, including appendages, 28.5 mm.; 

 length of hind wing, 24 mm. Colors dark brown or black, and 

 yellow. Head yellow, black or brown as follows: Rear of head on 

 upper half, hind margin of occiput, vertex, antenna, frons basally, 

 a fine line on fronto-nasal suture, minute spots at base of labrum, 

 and tips of mandibles. Postocellary vertical ridge somewhat sinuous,' 

 not attaining the eyes. Occiput about same height as level of eyes, 

 slightly convex, without median prominence or spine. 



Prothorax dark brown, yellow as follows: Front lobe, except line 

 on hind margin widening to a patch at each end; on median lobe, a 

 lateral patch and a geminate median spot; anterior to this a pale 

 triangular depression with apex to the rear (this may darken with 

 age) ; on hind lobe, a median spot. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 53-No. 2199. 



223 



