ARGIA 285 
roads, or in the open spaces of fields and woods that are devoid of 
vegetation. They thus frequently wander far inland from water and 
are to be found in and around houses in towns and villages. The author 
saw his first Argia fumipennis on a pipe organ in a Church in a small 
Florida town. The females in ovipositing seem to prefer floating chips, 
boards, etc., to vegetation. Many females will congregate on such 
floatsam and, clinging to the edges of it, will deposit their eggs by 
thrusting the ovipositor as far under water as possible. The emerging 
nymphs seem also to have this marked distaste for vegetation. For 
when they leave the water to transform they will, when ever possible 
crawl up the hard surfaces of stones, piers, logs, bare banks, etc. 
rather than green plants. 
In some species the male accompanies the female in ovipositing and 
when she submerges he goes with her. A few species of Argia are to 
be found in the deep vegetation along the banks of rivers and streams. 
All Argias are extremely nervous. They remain but a little time at 
rest, and are continually darting hither and yon, seemingly never 
content to remain inactive. 
The males divide sharply into two general color groups: One, the 
“light group,” having the body predominantly pale in color (gray, 
blue, violet or purple) with the black reduced to spots, streaks, or 
narrow bands. The other, the ‘‘dark group” having the body pre- 
dominantly black or dark brown, the pale colors being yellow or light 
brown. Argia bipunctulata is however, an intermediate between these 
two groups, having the abdomen light and the thorax and the head 
dark. The females of Argia do not fall into this same grouping, almost 
all of them have the pale colors predominating on some part of the 
body at least. 
The postocular spots are either well defined in the dark group, or 
broadly merged into the general pale color of the head in the light 
group. The color pattern of the abdomen is of some value in the 
separation of species. The coloration of the thorax is of special in- 
terest in Argia, especially in the males, varying as it does according 
to age, geographic distribution, and, probably, climate and altitude. 
In general there are six types of thoracic color patterns, (all with their 
various modifications), as shown in the accompanying figure. 
Structurally, Argia can be separated from the other genera of the 
Coenagrioninae, by the long spines on the tibia, which are at least twice 
as long as the spaces separating them; and by the larger number of 
them (10 or more). 
The male superior and inferior abdominal appendages are very small 
