332 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Female. 



Variation 1. — As we have said already, the De Selys Collec- 

 tion contains a remarkable female, in which the antehumeral 

 stripes on the thorax are practically obsolete. According to the 

 labels attached to it, the specimen is unique, and was taken at 

 Dolhain, in Belgium. The aberration is thus described by De 

 Selys: — " J'ai pris une seule fois une curieuse aberration, chez 

 laquelle les deux bandes jaunes antehumerales etaient obliterees, 

 reduites a une petite tache basale au bord mesothoracique " 

 (Bull. Acad. Belg. (2) xli. p. 1259, 1876). 



We have a single female in which the antehumeral stripes 

 are present, but interrupted as in normal pidchellum. The 

 specimen was taken at Staines on May 22nd, 1910, at a pond 

 yielding both puella and pulchellum, but we refer it to the former 

 species by reason of the shape of the prothorax. 



Variation 2. — A pair of conspicuous cuneiform green or blue 

 spots may occur on abdominal segments 3, 4, 5, and 6 ; smaller 

 spots of the like kind may be repeated on segment 7, and some- 

 times on segment 8. The normal thistle-spot on the second 

 segment is not infrequently replaced by a mercury-spot. One 

 of the descriptions of this variety written by De Selys is in the 

 following terms : — 



** La repartition du bronze sur I'abdomen est aussi sujette a 

 une variation analogue a ce qui existe chez le pidchellum, avec 

 cette difference que, la variete la plus commune chez le pul- 

 chellam est la plus rare chez la puella. Voici I'indication du 

 dessin chez un individu ou il s'ecarte le plus de la femelle type 

 que j'ai decrite plus haut : 2" segment bleu, avec une tache 

 trifide en avant bronzee (dans le genre de celle du male de 

 1'^. mercuriale) touchaut le bord posterieur ; 3*, 4% 5" et 6" seg- 

 ments, avec une tache dorsale, basale, bleue, bilide en arriere, 

 occupant le quart ou le tiers du segment. Le 8^ avec une tache 

 semblable occupant sa moitie anterieure et le bord posterieur de 

 meme couleur. — Ces taches peuvent etre vertes, blanchatres ou 

 aunatres" (Rev. Odon. p. 202). 



A specimen preserved in the British Museum Collection 

 carries three labels, as follows : — " Agr. puella var. ? annu- 

 latum," " ilf ," and " 369." The first is a large oblong label 

 in De Selys' own handwriting, but the others are printed labels, 

 and reference to the Museum Register shows that the specimen 

 is a Belgian one and was presented by De Selys, with other 

 dragonflies, late in 1846. So far as we can ascertain, the name 

 annulatuni was never published, and it is possible that De Selys 

 refrained from doing so in consequence of the varying extent to 

 which different individuals of the variety approximate towards 

 pidchellum. 



The variety cannot be accounted a rare one. In addition to 

 taking it in Epping Forest in 1904, 1908, and 1909, and in 



