32 [ February, 



Antenodals two, cross-veins in the postcostal area beginning at the level ol t lu" 



apex of the quadrilateral. 



Legion Lestes, Selys, of the Agrionin.i:. 



Median sector separating from the principal much nearer to the nodus than to the 



arculus. 



Antenodals two to five, but- usually two. 



A.GRIONIN.3E exclusive of the legion Lestes. 



We must consequently determine what position to assign to 

 Lestes. Many courses are open, but only two seem to me worth 

 considering at the present time. 1. To regard all the Zygoptera as 

 but a single group, in which case the various 'legions" of the 

 Galopteryginw and the Agrionincc (both terms sensu Selysii) , as well as 

 the legion Lestes, might rank as equal and co-ordinate sub-groups, and 

 it would make little difference whether these sub-groups were termed 

 " legions " or " sub-families." 2. The legion Lestes might be con- 

 sidered as co-ordinate with the Selysian Calopterygince and Agrionince 

 (excl. Lestes), in which case they would be properly termed Lestince. 

 This course seems to me to be the better until some future, thorough- 

 going revision of the structure, of both the nymphs and the adults, 

 of all the groups of Zygoptera, of all parts of the world, shall give us 

 a fuller knowledge of relationships. 



Pertinent to the present topic is the recent suggestion of Mr. 

 Kirby that a new genus from the island of Hainan, which be has 

 described as Pseudolestes (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., June, 1900, 

 p. 537), "should certainly form the type of a new sub-family " {I.e., 

 p. 538). I am quite unable to agree with Mr. Kirby in this 

 conclusion, for colour and general shape, to which he appeals, do not 

 constitute subfamily characters. The straightness of the wing-sectors 

 is paralleled in Ortholestes, Calvert, and perhaps also in Orolestes, 

 McLachlan, and the pterostigma is not sufficiently different (to judge 

 from the figure) from that of various Lestine genera. Only iD two 

 features does Pseudolestes differ from all other Lestina;, and these 

 are that the hind-wings are one-third shorter than the front wings, 

 and that the quadrilateral is oblong, not oblique on the apical end. 

 In this latter feature we have an approach to various Calopterygine 

 and Agrionine genera, but on the other hand Ortholestes again furnishes 

 a connecting link with Archilestes, Merjalestes and Lestes. Without 

 hesitation, therefore, I place Pseudolestes in the legion Lestes, of Selys, 

 or, to use the proposed new term, in the subfamily Lestince. 



Philadelphia, U. S. A.: 1901. 



