184 British Dragonflies. 



Faun. Ins. Fridr. 62, n. 546 (1764)]. Aischna sqnaiiiaia 

 Kirby, Syn. Cat. Neur. Oclon. 87 (1890). 



Strom's description, 



Libellula (Cc\;rulea) alis aqueis, corpore atro, maculis 

 ceruleis. 



This short Latin diagnosis is followed b}' a more 

 particular description in Danish. (H. Strom, Nye 

 Samling af det Kongelige Danske Videnskabcrs Selskabs 

 Skrivter ii., p. 90, n. 129, 1783). 



[Kirby, in his Catalogue oi" the Neuroj:)tera Odonata (1890), refers 

 the yEschiia squainata of jMiiller to this species. Aliiller says of it : 

 Lihelliila sqiiamata, alis albidis puncto marginali lutescente : lineis 

 thoracis quatuor ca;ruleis. (Faun. Ins. Fridr., 1764.) Two years 

 later he describes the insect more fully : " Facies fusca, all)o-\ariegata. 

 Oculi fusci. Thorax fuscus, lineis utrinque 2 albo-cceruleis. Pedes 

 nigro-fuscis, squamula ad basin posteriorum alba. Abdomen 

 cylindricum, fusco albo nigrocjue mire mixtum, subtus fuscum. Medio 

 Septemhris. (Nov. Act. Acad. Leopold. -Carol, 1766.) This 

 description might apply to several species of the genus ALschna, but 

 scarcely to this, which does not appear to occur in Denmark, and 

 where, too, from the nature of the country we should hardly expect 

 it. Further, in Scotland it appears to be over liy the end of July, 

 whereas Miiller gives as the date for sqiiamata the middle of 

 September, when several ^Eschnas are certainly on the wing, but not 

 CiVrulea. Ofcourse, Zettersiedt's name, borealis, bestowed by him on 

 the insect in his " Insecta Lapponica," published in 1840, must yield 

 priority to Strom's. He appears to have been unaware of .Strom's 

 works when he published the desciiption. It does not seem necessary 

 to discuss the claim of H^Yns colubercidiis (1782) to belong to this 

 species ; but should anyone feel curious about the identity of the 

 insect so named by him, he will find the case discussed in De Selys' 

 "Revue des Odonates," p. 122].* 



Size. 



Length of Male, 66'5mm. ; expanse o{ wings, 86mm. to 

 87mm. Length of Female, 58mm. to 64mm. ; expanse 

 of wings, 78mm. to 85mm. 



* For a full treatment of the synonymy of this species, see R. jNIcLachlan's 

 article in E. .M. M., 1898, p. 226. 



