XII. ON AN ANISOZ YGOPTEROUvS LARVA 

 FROM THE HIMALAYAS (Ordek ODONATA.) 



By R. J. Tii.LYARD, M.A., Sc.D. {Cantab.), D.Sc. (Sydney), 



F.L.S., F.E.S., Entomologist and Chief of the Biological 



Depnrtment, Caictfnon Intitule, Nelson, Neit> Zealand. 



(Plate XIII). 



The Order Odonata is usually subdivided iiit(> two Suborders, 

 the Zygoptera aud the Anisoptera, of which the priucipal characters 

 are by now so well known that it is not necesary to recapitulate 

 them here. Besides these two universally recognised types, there 

 existed in Liassic times an extensive group of Dragonflies, which, 

 to a considerable extent, appears to have combined the characters 

 of the two Suborders in approximately equal measure. Handlirsch, 

 who has studied these insects carefully, has separated them out 

 into a new Suborder, to which he gave the name Anisozygoptera.' 



There exists at the present day, so far as is known, a single 

 genus and species of Dragonfly, Epiophlebia superstes (Selys), from 

 Japan, which appears to combine the characters of the Zygoptera 

 and Anisoptera in such a manner that it may legitimately be 

 classified in the Anisozygoptera, if Handlirsch's decision regarding 

 the Liassic type:; be accepted. This remarkable dragonfly possesses 

 a Gomphine type of coloration, a Gomphine form of head, thorax 

 and abdomen, and an archaic Zygopterous type of wing-venation. 

 In my book on the " Biology of the Odonata ",'^ I included Hand- 

 lirsch's Anisozygoptera within the vSuborder Zygoptera, and have 

 placed Epiophlebia in the family Lestidae, making it form by 

 itself a subfamily Epiophlebiinae. 



Up to the present time, the larva of Epiophlelna has remained 

 undiscovered, though it is certainly the greatest prize awaiting 

 discovery in this Order. It was safe to assume, considering the 

 large number of larval characters in which the Zygoptera differ 

 from the Anisoptera, that the discovery of this larva would de- 

 finitely settle whether Epiophlebia was a true Zygopteron, as I had 

 provisionally assumed, or whether it combined Zygopterous with 

 Anisopterous characters in such proportion that it would support 

 the recognition of Hardlirsch's new Suborder Anisozygoptera. 



For a number of years Mr. F. F. Laidlaw, of Uft'culme, Devon, 

 has been working on the Odonate fauna of India. He has a 

 wide knowledge of the whole Oriental fauna, and is our recog- 



' Die FossHi'n [mekteii. p. 46/5 (Leipzig, iyo!S). 

 ^ Pp. _'76, ;,o7 (Cimbridye I'niw Prcs-;. uji;). 



