Tkiacanthagyna and Gynacantha 49 



on cither side, bright bhie ; sides of 3 below from base to sHghtly posterior 

 to the transverse carina duller blue; 3-5 each with a small triangular blue 

 or green dorsal spot on either side at the transverse carina, the two spots 

 on each segment very narrowly separated ; otherwise the abdomen above 

 and on the sides is dark brown or black. Femora rich reddish brown, black 

 at apices. 



The following notes were made from a San Esteban female : Eyes 

 very dark brown above, gray beneath. Mesothorax and metepisternum 

 green, the last gray behind along the suture; dorsum of thorax darker green 

 with a black bar on each side and black on the middorsal carina and border- 

 ing the antealar sinus in front ; metepimeron black, gray behind and below ; 

 black between the front wings, posteriorly blue spotted between the wings. 

 Segment i light brown, dark above apically ; 2 largely black above with a 

 blue subapical spot on either side and traces of a longitudinal middorsal 

 stripe ; 3-6 with a small spot on either side at the tranverse carina, these 

 spots progressively smaller posteriorly, and the spots on each segment very 

 narrowly separated. 



Membranalis is a wide ranging and adaptable species. In \ enezuela, 

 after collecting it on the high rocky quebradas back of San Esteban, associ- 

 ated with such things as Hetaerina, Cora, and Heteragrion, we were sur- 

 prised to iind it equally at home about the small scattered muddy spots in 

 the heavy low-lying forests about La Fria, where its dragonfly associates 

 were such things as Lestes, ]\Ietaleptobasis, and Orthemis. The San 

 Esteban specimens were all freshly emerged, and their recent advent into 

 aerial life may account for the frequently observed high soaring, back and 

 forth over some quebrada, which opened a path through the forest for 

 their flight. 



On February 5 at 4 P.M. several were seen soaring high above the 

 reach of an insect net and an effort was made to bring them down with 

 our revolvers loaded with dust shot. We crippled two. but they darted 

 downward into the forest and we could not find them. The next day J. H. 

 W. at the same place, flushed a specimen, which he easily caught, and which 

 proved, by the shot marks, to have been one of our targets of the day before. 

 On February 9, we observed that membranalis was on the wing at all times 

 from about 9 A. M., when we reached the quebrada above Las Quiggas 

 where we spent the day, till 4 P. M. when we left. About 3:30 P. M. 

 possibly eight or ten were patrolling a stretch of quebrada about two 

 hundred feet long where an extensive land slide had opened the stream to 

 the sun. Five of these were captured, one male and four females, and all 

 were recently emerged. On several occasions we observed males, apparently 

 in search of females, flying about rocky pools of crystal water high up 

 the quebradas back of San Esteban. And at La Fria a male taken near a 

 pool of the consistency of batter or gravy, lying in a great expanse of level 

 forest, had parts of the abdomen and wings coated with a wash of light 

 reddish earth, probably due to an attack on an ovipositing female. The male 

 taken at Rockstone, British Guiana, was captured just after sundown 

 patrolling a stagnant pool in a mud-bottomed creek in which the water 



