ii»oo.] 209 



wood almost any number might have been secured, and it is no exaggeration to say 

 there were thousands in that wood. At that date, however, the great majority of 

 the specimens were more or less worn, and evidently the very hot previous week, 

 when I was away from home, was the time to have got them in fine condition. 

 Only in one previous season, and that probably towards thirty years ago, have I seen 

 the species in anything approaching such numbers. — Geo. T. Pokeitt, Crosland 

 Hall, Huddersfield : August lOtk, 1900. 



Stenophylax alpestris, cfc, at Huddersfield. — On the occasion of the visit of 

 the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union to this district on June 28th last, a specimen of 

 Stenophylax alpestris was captured by one of the members in Henley Wood, not 

 far from my residence, and brought to nie. Long and careful subsequent searches 

 by Mr. W. Tunstall and myself, not only on the same spot, but also on the near 

 reservoir and streams, both during the daytime and evening, failed to produce 

 another example : though the effort turned up another species not previously 

 known to occur here in Limnophilus fuscicornis on the Meltham Mills reservoir, 

 where also several of a rather small form of Molanna angustata were secured. — Id. 



An unusual variety of Sympetrum flaveolum, L., 9 ,from the island of Alder- 

 ney. — Amongst a very large number of S. flaveolum taken by the Rev. Dr. Walker 

 in Alderney in July of this year, there is one female that deserves special mention. 

 Dr. Walker thought it might be striolatum. At first sight I thought it might be 

 Fonscolombii. But it is reaXly flaveolum, with the yellow on the wings reduced to 

 a minimum. On the anterior wings there is no yellow at the base, but there is, 

 perhaps, just an obsolescent trace of yellow at the nodus (where there is a yellow 

 clouding in ordinary females) ; on the posterior wings the ordinary large yellow 

 basal portion is reduced to a small space at the extreme base (less than in some 

 examples of Fonscolombii). Parallel varieties of flaveolum, $ , are not unknown, 

 but are certainly rare (or confused with other species) ; on this point see De Selys' 

 " Revue des Odonates," where (at pp. 34 — 35) allusion is made to similar individuals 

 from Belgium and Prussia. Possibly the best prima facie characters whereby to 

 separate such varieties from Fonscolombii are the shorter pterostigma and the for 

 the most part blackish (instead of reddish) longitudinal nervures. Naturally in 

 such cases one looks to the vulvar scale for confirmatory evidence. Such evidence 

 is present, but the form of the scale is somewliat similar in both, and I have not 

 seen any published comparative notes. In both it is very short, not prominent, and 

 deeply excised in the middle. There is this difference : in flaveolum the excision is 

 small, nearly circular, with the angles at the open part slightly convergent ; in 

 Fonscolombii the excision is much wider, occupying more of the whole scale, and 

 the angles recede or are divergent. 



It is but natural, under the circumstances, that I should again allude to the $ 

 of S. Fonscolombii, from Alderney, named by me for Mr. Luff — published in tjie 

 present volume at p. 43, ante. I have not again seen this specimen, but from in- 

 formation furnished by Mr. Luff, in answer to my enquiries, there does not seem the 

 sliglitest reason to doubt that it is a genuine Fonscolombii. — R. McLachlan, 

 Lewisham, London: August IQth, 1900. 



