“THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
~ Vox. LIV.) AUGUST, 1921. NG. 0. 699 
A NEW SPECIES OF MAYFLY, PALINGENIA (SENSU 
LATO), FROM MESOPOTAMIA. 
By Kenneru J. Morton, F.E.S. 
(Plate IT.) 
AutHouGH this species of Ephemeroptera, so remarkable in its 
appearance, and on account of the vast numbers in which it 
emerges during a very short period from the waters of the Tigris 
and (it is assumed) the Euphrates, may have been noticed by 
other officers serving in Mesopotamia, yet as far as I know there 
have been no specimens sent home excepting by Capt. P. A. 
Buxton and Capt. W. Edgar Evans. That it was so noticed may 
be gathered from ‘‘ Notes on Some Asiatic Species of Palin- 
genia,” by F. H. Gravely (‘ Records of the Indian Museum,’ 
vol. xviii, pt. 38, pp. 139-143, pls. xvili-xx, April, 1920), who, 
under the heading ‘ Palingenia (s. str.)? longicauda, Oliv., 
Palingenia sp. (? robusta), Needham, from Seistan,” says: ‘‘ The 
species probably occurs also in Mesopotamia, as Major Connor 
writes that he saw millions of the large mayflies on the 
Euphrates at the beginning of April. They were being eaten up 
by the ordinary Caspian river tortoise as they lay in heaps in 
eddies or slack waters. They swarm in the river even as far 
down as Basra.” As the Mesopotamian species is apparently 
new I describe it as follows : 
Palingenia mesopotamica, n. sp. 
g (dried). Head above dull black, sordid white in front 
and also posteriorly. Pronotum transverse broader poste- 
riorly, anterior margin sinuous, produced in the middle; 
posterior margin nearly straight ; dull blackish sordid white in 
the middle and at the sides, sternum black. Mesonotum dull 
deep black, sutures white, a fine white median line, sternum 
black. Metanotum in its anterior part black with a white 
median spot. Legs white, anterior ivory white, slightly tinged 
with fuscous on the coxe and trochanters. Wings sub-opaque, 
ochraceous, slightly paler towards the base; they ‘shrivel at the 
tip when dried. Abdomen robust, of nearly equal breadth to 
the thorax only slightly narrower in the apical segments, mainly 
brownish above ; posterior margin of segments narrowly whitish ; 
forceps limbs and penis lobes ivory white, sete ribbon- like, 
ENTOM.—avuaust, 1921. Q 
