216 DRAGONFLIES OF NORTH AMERICA 
A slender clear winged species with a body that shows very great differences 
in appearance according to age. Face yellow, cross striped with black, or when 
mature wholly metallic blue. Stripes traverse border of labrum, entire ante- 
clypeus and the fronto-clypeal suture. Tip of vertex at first, yellow. Occiput 
black. Thorax yellow traversed by numerous sinuous vertical stripes of brown, 
later becoming wholly dark pruinose blue. Front of thorax more brown than 
yellow, a rather wide stripe of which borders the carina and an interrupted one 
lies in the blue on either side. On the sides are 5 brown stripes of nearly equal 
width, confluent above and below except on the middle suture. Legs black, 
coxae paler. Wings hyaline with only a yellowish tinge at base; stigma tawny. 
Abdomen marked with yellow becoming wholly black with age; the yellow covers 
the basal segments except for narrow transverse lines of black, and is restricted 
apically and laterally on segments 5-8; 9 and 10 black. Appendages yellowish 
at first. Wings of an old female often show a diffuse brownish cloud covering 
half their breadth at the nodus. 
The nymph is an inhabitant of brackish waters. 
41. OrtTHEMIs Hagen 
These are rather large, stout bodied dragonflies of pale brownish 
color, that assume plumbeous tints with age. The wings are hyaline 
with very long stigma and with the cross veins behind it elongated 
crosswise of the wings. The abdomen is parallel sided almost to the tip. 
The sections of the arculus are distinctly stalked; the bridge sub- 
tends but one cross vein; the cells bordering vein M, are transversely 
elongated before the stigma. 
Its nymph (Ndm ’92, p. 702) is thick-set, hairy, plathemis-like in 
the bulging hind angles of the head and in the crenate front border of 
the median lobe of the labium. 
A single representative of this neotropical genus is found on our 
southern border. 
186. Orthemis ferruginea Fabricius 
Fabr. 1775, p. 423: Mtk. Cat. p. 143: Ris ’10, p. 282: Calv. ’28, p. 19. 
Syn: discolor Burm., macrostigma Ramb. 
Length 54 mm. Expanse 88 mm. Fla., Miss., Tex. and Ariz. 
This is a large stout bodied species with hyaline wings and a long stigma. 
Face pale, becoming darker with age on edge of labrum, top of frons and vertex. 
Occiput shining black. Thorax nearly bare with no long fringe on collar; with 
no color pattern but only a darker shade in the depths of the sutures; greenish 
olivaceous when young, becoming plum colored with age. Legs blackish with 
black spines and claws. Wings hyaline with brown veins and stigma that become 
rufous with age. Abdomen nearly uniform in color, darkened only narrowly 
along the carinae. Appendages pale. 
