298 DRAGONFLIES OF NORTH AMERICA 
Female.—Differs from the male as follows: rear of head tawny with a vary- 
ing amount of black. Thoracic dorsum pale, the middorsal carina and a fine 
line on the humeral sutures black. Abdomen pale reddish brown, segments 3-7 
each side with a longitudinal blackish stripe, paler below this; 8 as in male; 9 
pale green or brown with or without black markings. 
Both male and female have the stigma surmounting more than one cell 
in 98 per cent of cases. Also this species tends to become very pruinose very 
early in life. sometimes so much so as to entirely obscure the color pattern. 
In the light colored eastern form (A. putrida Hagen), the face is 
yellowish. The antehumeral pale stripe is yellowish. The lower half of 
the sides of the thorax is pale, with only a narrow black stripe on the 
third lateral suture. 
285. Argia rita Kennedy 
Kndy. 719, p. 17. 
Length 35 mm. Expanse 44 mm. Ariz. 
Male unknown. 
Female.—Color of labium pale; labrum bluish; face and head otherwise 
violaceous, except the ventral surfaces which are pale buff. Each postocular 
area bounded anteriorly and posteriorly by a narrow bar of black. Prothorax 
violaceous, darker above, sides with a sinuous black line, the dorsum with a 
heavy black Y-mark, the fork opening caudal. Thorax with the middorsal 
carina pale, but edged by a very narrow, middorsal black stripe. Humeral stripe 
narrow in the lower half, narrowing to a hair line above, but widening into an 
oval spot at the alar ridge. Third lateral suture with a hair line of black. Ab- 
domen violaceous on segments 1-2, brown on segments 3-7, blue on segments 
8-10. The following black markings occur: a pair of stripes on 2, mere hair 
lines with the posterior end of each enlarged into a triangular spot; an apical 
ring incomplete below on segments 2-6; a saddle-shaped spot on the apex of 
segments 3-6; this is connected anteriorly on 6 with a lateral line on either side 
which appears on segments 3-5 as a detached antero-lateral spot. Segment 7 
with the dorsum black except for a narrow ring across the anterior end and the 
anterior two-thirds of the middorsal line which are pale. 
This female is distinguished at once from all other Argias by two enormous 
pits, one under each mesostigmal plate, on the anterior ends of the mesepisterna. 
286. Argia sedula (Hagen) 
Hag. ’61, p. 94: Mtk. Cat. p. 50: Wlsn. 712, p. 198: Garm.’17, p. 510: Smn. ’27, 
pelZ; 
Length 30(<)-40(9) mm. Expanse 40-45 mm. C. and S. States to Ariz. 
Male.—F ace blue. Postclypeus blue with reduced black markings. Frons 
blue with a Y-shaped black mark anterior from the median ocellus. Ocellar area 
black with blue spots in the neighborhood of the lateral ocelli. Pale postocular 
spots large and contiguous with the margins of the compound eyes. Rear margin 
of the postocular area black. Dorsum of the prothorax black with a large lateral 
pale spot on either side of the median lobe, and smaller ones on the sides of the 
posterior lobe, sides pale. Thorax with the black middorsal and humeral stripes 
