SYMPETRUM 
231 
and occiput blackish clothed with thin brown hairs. Thorax and the swollen 
base of the abdomen rusty brownish, darker about the bases of the appendages 
and in the depths of the lateral sutures, but without stripes. Legs brown, paler 
basally. Wings hyaline, shining, slender, tinged with amber yellow beyond the 
nodus and generally bearing a large brownish spot of very variable extent which 
extends from the nodus well out towards the stigma and fades out towards the 
edges. The costal strip, amber yellow when stripe not developed; stigma whitish 
or pale yellow; veins brown. Abdomen long and slender, the paler basal segments 
compressed; 2 and 3 carinate; middorsal band of black on 3 to 9, dilated at 
apex of each segment. In old specimens these segments appear entirely black; 
10 and appendages paler. 
46. SymMPpETRUM Newman 
Syn: Diplax; Brachymesia 
Topers 
These are rather small, autumnal dragonflies of 
brilliant red, mature coloration. The teneral color is 
usually olivaceous. Stripes of white (reduced some- 
times to inferior spots) often appear upon the sides of 
the thorax, and sometimes, narrower ones upon the 
front, in teneral specimens; but these are apt to wholly 
disappear with age, the entire thorax becoming reddish 
brown. Only in S. danae (of our species) is it con- 
spicuously striped with black. The sides of abdominal 
segments 3 to 9 bear a line of black triangles which 
tend to overspread the dorsum with black, most 
widely on segment 8. The wings are hyaline, with 6 

Fig. 42. Nymph 
Sympetrum 
flavescent tinge at the base, of very variable extent, rubicundulum. 
The Known Nymphs 
Species Length | Lat. sp. | Lat. sp. Dorsal Lat. | Ment. Described by 
of 8 of 9 hooks set. set. 
assimilatum 16 1/3 of 9 4-8 9 12 Ndm. ’01, p. 524 
corruptum 19 0 rud. 0 13-14 17 Ndm. ’03, p. 271 
costiferum 141/2 | 1/2 of 8 | 2/3 of 9 | sharp 6-8] 10-12 | 13-18 | Ndm. ’01, p. 520 
danae 14 low r or 11-12 | 13-15 | Walk. ’17, p. 417 
0on8 
illotum 18 0 rud. 0 9 13 Ndm. in Byers '27, p. 71 
madidum 141/2 equals 9 | low 5-8 2 12 Ndm. ’04, p. 707 
rons 
obstrusum 16 1/5 of 8 | 1/3 of 9 | moderate 9 12 Ndm. ’01, p. 524 
4-8 
pallipes 16-18 | 1/4 of 8 | 2/5 of 9 | sharp 4-8} 10-11 | 12-15 | Walk. ’14, p. 373 
rubicundulum 17 1/6 of 8 | 1/3-1/5 | low 4-8r 9 12 Ndm. ’01, p. 525 
of 9 | orOon8 
semicinctum 141/2 | 1/3 of 8 | exceeds 9} large 6-8 9 12 Ndm. ’01, p. 524 
vicinum 13 2/3 of 8 | equals 9 | large 6-8 9 12-13 | Ndm. ’01, p. 523 

