THE ENTOMOLOGIST 
Vou. XLVIL1 JANUARY, 1914. [No. 608 
SOME REMARKS ON THE ATLANTIC FORMS OF 
SYMPETRUM STRIOLATUM, Cuarp. 
By Kenneto J. Morton, F.E.S. 
In the ‘ Revue des Odonates’ (1850), p. 43, in discussing the 
Libellula ruficollis of Charpentier, de Selys writes as follows :— 
‘*M. Hagen m’a communiqué deux des trois exemplaires types 
recus de Portugal par M. de Charpentier ; ce sont de vrais strio- 
lata males trés adultes, mais en mauvais état de conservation. 
i Les pieds sont comme tournés au gras et les lignes 
jaunes sont trés-étroites, surtout sur les cuisses (qui au premier 
abord paraissent noirdtres), mais elles existent. la taille est 
trés grande, mais pas sans exemple en Belgique.”’ Lower down 
on the same page we read: “‘J’ai vu dans la collection de Miss 
Ball a Dublin, des exemplaires males adultes qui avaient aussi 
les pieds trés-peu lignés de jaune.” 
In the “‘ Revision des Diplax paléarctiques ”’ (‘ Annales de la 
Soc. Ent. Belg.,’ xxviii. p. 85 (1884), de Selys describes a race 
of S. striolatum from Madeira under the name of nigrifemur, of 
which he says:—‘‘ Les femurs sont noiratres sans ligne jaunatre, 
et aux tibias le jaunatre n’occupe qu’une raie externe étroite. 
La taille est trés grande: abdomen ff 27: 2 26-29. Aijle 
inferieure ¢ 30-33; ¢? 30-83... les parties noiratres des cotés 
du thorax sont trés foncées, de sorte que. les deux bandes 
jaunatres qui les divisent, sont fort tranchées.” 
These are the first indications of the existence of what may 
be termed an Atlantic race of S. striolatum characterized by 
darker femora, and usually by more strongly pronounced lateral 
thoracic markings than in the more typical forms. 
The next occasion on which exceptionally dark S. striolatuwm 
are alluded to, the insects in question came from a somewhat 
unexpected and in some respects rather remote point, and the 
imagination of those who had to do with them seems to have 
been rather exercised concerning them. 
Mr. Lucas in ‘ Entomologist,’ May, 1900, p. 1389, recorded 
the capture at Stornoway by Mr. Fremlin of two females of a 
Sympetrum, and wrote of them as follows :—‘‘ The conclusion to 
which we must come, seeing there are two specimens thus pre- 
ENTOM.—JANUARY, 1914. B 
