82 Records of /he Indian Museum. fVoi.. XXII, 



vSeries Anax. 



I folltiv\- Tillyarrl {loc. cil.) in treating Heniianax as a division 

 of subgeneric value only. Anciciaeschna approaches Anax in 

 sufficient degree I think to make it advisable to refer it to the 

 same series. 



Anax guttatus, Burni. 



Aiiiix giittatiii. Kirby, Caf. Odonata, p. .S4. 



Martin, Cat. Coll. Sely% .^esclnii ii'ir. p. j,;, Hy. 17. 

 Anax baccluis (J id., op. clt., p. 22. 



I have found it difficult to deal in a satisfactory manner with 

 tlie specimens of .4nax not included in the species parlhenope and 

 inimaciilifyons. I have adopted what seems to me the method 

 least open to objection of grouping these specimens, all of which 

 I regard as belonging to guttatus in its broadest interpretation, in 

 three series which for the present I do not name but merely label 

 A, P. C. Dr. Anuandale has given me (/;; litt.) the following notes 

 on the habits of this species :— 



' ' The species of this family common round the little lakes 

 near Sitong in the Darjiling District in the rains (i.e. A. giittattis 

 series C) is different from that common in the same places in the 

 autumn after the rains (i.e. Aeschna ornithocepliala). Kemp 

 collected the former and noted that it laid its eggs in water, and 

 not in mud at the edge of the lake like the Aeschna.' ' 

 And of specimens of series A, from Barkuda Is. 

 " — a most active and pugnacious insect. One takes posses- 

 ' sion of the little pond on the island every morning as soon as 

 ' the sun is well up, and flies round it all day apparently never 

 ' resting. Frequently another individual flies out from the jungle 

 ' and begins the same manoeuvres, but the original possessor sees 

 ' him at once, flies at him at once, and the two fight in the air 

 ' hitting one another with their wings, and I tnink sometimes 

 ' even biting with their mandibles. One captured after a figlit 

 ' of the kind had lost the greater part of a hind-wing. I have 

 ' often seen one of the combatants hit down almost to the ground, 

 ' and have found a male apparently drowned in the pond, prob- 

 ' ably having been knocked into the water by another. Often, 

 ' whilst two males are fighting in this way a third makes its 

 ' appearance and a second encounter takes place with the victor 

 ' in the first. 



' ' The Aeschnid however takes no notice of Libellulids and 

 " Agrionids flying over the pond." 



I have tried to facilitate the description of the abdominal 

 colour pattern of th(; specimens, and to make accurate comparison 

 between them by the use of a definite terminology applied to 

 special areas of the tergites of the abdominal segments. The 

 terms used need a short explanation (see text-fig. 2). On segments 

 2—H of the abdomen each tergite is furnished with a transverse 

 carina in addition to its terminal transverse carinae. On segments 



