CHLOROLESTES UMBRATUS, HIGEN (ODONATA). 149 



ON CHLOROLESTES UMBRATUS, HAGEN 

 (ODONATA). 



By Herbert Campion. 



Chlorolestes is a particularly interesting and somewhat 

 isolated genus of Agrionid Dragonflies, peculiar to the South 

 African fauna. Of the five species which have been described 

 so far, Ch. umbratus is at once the smallest and the rarest. It 

 was originally described by Hagen in 1862, from a male from the 

 Cape of Good Hope ('Bull. Acad. Belg.' (2), xiv, p. 37), and, so 

 far as I am aware, no further records have been published since 

 that date. Another specimen, likewise a male from the Cape, 

 was presented to the British Museum by R. W. Townsend as 

 long ago as 1842. This example, which has lost one pair of 

 wings and is otherwise in fair condition only, has been examined 

 by Dr. F. Eis, and carries the following note in his handwriting : 

 " Chlorolestes umhrata, Sel., det. Dr. F. Ris. This specimen was 

 confronted at Eheinau with the typical ^ labelled by Hagen 

 and de Selys from the Selys collection, and found to agree 

 sufficiently with that type. 29, iv. 1913." While going through 

 the Odonata belonging to the University Museum of Zoology, 

 Cambridge, I found a third male, as well as a specimen of the 

 female sex, which was hitherto unknown. Mr. Hugh Scott, the 

 Curator in Entomology at that Museum, has kindly informed 

 me that his register shows them to have been obtained in Cape 

 Colony in 1897 by Miss Wilman. These insects have now passed 

 into the keeping of the British Museum (Natural History), and, 

 as they are in a fine state of preservation, it seems advisable to 

 publish fresh descriptions of both sexes of this little-known 

 species. 



The two males now in the British Museum resemble one 

 another very closely, but differ in several respects from the 

 one described by Hagen. Indeed, in the absence of the direct 

 comparison with the type of umbratus which has been made by 

 Dr. Ris, I should doubtless have felt disposed to treat the material 

 before me as representing an undescribed species. According 

 to what was written by Hagen and De Selys in 1862 {loc. cit.) 

 and 1886 (' Mem. Cour.,' xxxviii, p. 74), umbratus is especially 

 characterised by (1) the small size ; (2) the small number of 

 postnodals in the fore wing ; (3) the simple venation ; (4) the 

 form of the anal appendages ; (5) the unicolorous orange 

 pterostigma ; (6) the vividness of the bronze-green of the body ; 

 and (7) the green coloration of the face and the base of the 

 antenna. Of the characters mentioned, the only ones which 

 really apply to the British Museum specimens are (3) the sim- 

 plicity of the venation, (4) the anal appendages, and (5) the 



