AGRION PULCHELLUM KESEMBLING AGRION PUELLA. 215 



prohibited sembling with the females, and I regret that I was 

 thus unable to breed from my stock. Of the two forms of 

 A. betularia, the var. douhledaijaria occurs in this district by far 

 the most frequently. The earliest record of the capture of 

 douhledayaria was about the year 1870. 



We are, here, in fine open country, far removed from the 

 smoke of a manufacturing town, consequently the tree trunks 

 preserve their natural variety of colour. 



I should mention that the three specimens were photographed 

 natural size, and the other eight reduced about half. 



Lynn Garth, Kendal : May 30th, 1901. 



AGRION PULCHKLLUM, VAR., RESEMBLING A. PUELLA. 



By W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. 



Normally in this species the characteristic spot on the 

 dorsal surface of the second segment of the abdomen consists 

 of a TJ, strongly connected with the black circlet posterior to it. 

 Occasionally the connection is weaker, and in a specimen before 

 me, taken at the Byfleet Canal on June 26th last, it is absent 

 {vide figure), causing the insect at first sight to resemble a male 



Agrion pulchellum, g ab. Dorsal surface of segments 1 and 2, much magnified. 



of Agrion puella {cf. Plate IL, ante, figs. 1 and 2). That it is 

 not really puella may be known by the posterior margin of the 

 prothorax, the divided humeral blue stripes, and the shape of 

 the anal appendages. This form has occasionally been noted 

 before {vide De Selys' ' Eevue des Odonates,' p. 198, and my 

 ' British Dragonflies,' p. 280), but in places where both species fly 

 together, as at Byfleet Canal, this uncommon variety of the less 

 frequent species might easily be passed over for a typical puella. 



Kingston-on-Thames. 



s2 



