228 DRAGONFLIES OF NORTH AMERICA 
205. Libellula vibrans Fabricius 
Fabr. 1798, p. 380: Mtk. Cat. p. 141: Ris ’10, p. 268: Howe ’20, p. 70: Garm. ’27, 
p. 253. 
Syn: leda Say 
Length 60 mm. Expanse 100 mm. Me. and Mass. to Mo. and N. C. 
A very large species with long slender wings and abdomen. Vertex brown 
or purple. Face yellow. Occiput fringed behind with white hairs. A longer 
fringe of white hairs encircles the collar. Body brown and yellow, becoming 
wholly pruinose blue with age. Front of thorax brown with narrow middorsal 
yellow stripe; sides yellow with an interrupted brown stripe (stripe 5) on last 
suture and the rudiment of another one (stripe 4) just before the spiracle beneath. 
Legs yellowish to middle of femur, thereafter blackish. Wings marked with 
brown, as shown in figure, with black stigma. Abdomen yellowish on the slightly 
swollen basal segments, brownish beyond with broad lateral yellow obscure 
stripes; these extend forward dorsally on segments 2 and 3 and beneath the 
brown of the sides there are confluent yellow spots below on these same segments. 
Appendages blackish. 
Called by the senior author (’01) “Another handsome, graceful, well 
proportioned insect of very swift flight,’’ and reported by Brimley (’03) 
as “.... flying over marshes and standing water, the largest and most 
sluggish of the Libellulas.’”’ Found about lakes and ponds from June 
to September (Muttkowski ’08). 
206. Libellula axillena Westwood 
Wstwd. ’37, p. 47, fig. 1: Mtk. Cat. p. 136. 
Length 57 mm. Expanse 90 mm. Pa. to Fla. and La. 
A fine large species with slender abdomen. Face obscure yellowish, darkening 
with age (except at sides) and becoming rich metallic purple on labrum and top 
of frons. Bilobed tip of vertex yellow. Occiput olivaceous. Thorax brown and 
yellow, becoming pruinose blue above with age; front, brown with median yellow 
stripe; sides brown rather extensively above the legs and below the wing roots; 
with yellow extending along the middle from the collar to and upon the abdomen. 
There is a half stripe of brown (stripe 5) on the last lateral suture above. Legs 
black with yellow bases. Wings spotted with brown, as shown in figure; stigma 
black. Basal abdominal segments with middorsal, midlateral and midventral 
stripes of brown, the 2 former narrowly connected by brown lines on the carinae. 
Segments 4-8 or 9 with a broad pale stripe above, bordering the lateral margin. 
Appendages blackish. 
44. PuatHEemis Hagen 
White-tails 
In this genus the sexes are very differently colored. The males having 
but two, the females three brown patches on the wings, and these differ- 
ently proportioned. The male has a pair of hooks on the ventral side of 
