1>42 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Argia apicalis Say 



Plate 17, fig. 1 

 1830 A g r i o n apicalis Say, Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. Jour. 8:410 

 1861 Agi-ioB apicale Hagen, Synopsis Neur. N. Am. p.91 

 1893 Argia apicalis Calvert, Am. Ent. Soc. Trans. 20:2.33 



1898 A gr ion apicalis Davis, N. Y. Ent. Soc. Jour. 6:196 (listed 



from Staten Island) 



1899 Argia apicalis Kellicott, Odou. Ohio, p. 26 (description) 

 19C1'0 Argia apicalis Williamson, Dragon Flies Ind. p.2(M 



This species I did not find either at Saranac Inn or at Ithaca, 

 but I bred it in 1895 at Galesburg 111., and in 1896 at Havana 

 111. At Galesbnrg it was exceedingly abundant on the clayey 

 banks of a rather deep woodland pond; at Havana it is exceed- 

 ingly abundant at the mouth of the Spoon river, and on the 

 west bank of the Illinois river below that point. On the sandy 

 •east bank of the Illinois river I did not observe it at all. 



Imagos when fully mature are of a very bright, beautiful 

 blue color, unobscured by pruinosity, as in the last species. 

 But they are long in attaining their full coloration, and teneral 

 specimens are of a pale flesh tint. I observed the imagos, both 

 teneral and mature, at Galesburg feeding voraciously on adult 

 Chironomids. Transformation takes place on some bank or 

 projecting timber within a few inches of the edge of the water. 



Nymph. Length 12.5mm, gills 5mm additional, abdomen 

 8mm; width of head .3.1mm. Antennae six-jointed. Lateral 

 setae three, occasionally four, but then the fourth is much 

 smaller than the others. Median lobe of labium with a median 

 Y-shaped chitinization, the arms of the Y projecting forward. 

 Gills half as wide as long, with margins parallel for a distance, 

 usually showing a paler transverse streak at three fourths their 

 length. Wing tips reaching well across the sixth abdominnl 

 segment. 



Nymphs of this species k»^pt in an aquarium at Galesburg 

 intermittently swayed the abdomen from side to side, appar- 

 ■ently as an aid to respiration; yet other nymphs in the same 

 iiquarium, having lost their gills, did not seem to suffer in con- 

 sequence, though kept for weeks, and finally transformed into 

 perfect specimens. 



Argia violacea Hagen 

 Plate 13, fig. 4, 5 

 1861 Agrion violaceum Hagen. Synopsis Neur. N. Am. p. 90 

 1893 Argia violacea Calvert, Am. Ent. Soc. Trans. 23:233 



