NO. 1710. NORTH AMERICAN DRAG0NFLIE8— WILLIAMSON. 



371 



injury during their development. In these two cases the abnor- 

 mality is slight and would interfere but little if at all with the normal 

 functions of the insect. 



The nymph of illinoiensis has been described by Cabot and Need- 

 ham. I have collected neither nymphs nor exuvia? which have been 

 specifically identified. In Steuben County, Indiana, I collected 

 a few nymphs among tree rootlets in deep pools in a small woodland 

 stream between two lakes, but I was unable to rear these. This 

 paper deals only with imagoes. 



Material for this paper has been collected during the past several 

 years. In 1900 Mr. C. C. Deam collected a Macromia at Blount 

 Springs, Alabama, which I was unable to identify. Since then I 

 have had a revision of the North American Macromias in mind, and 

 recently I have borrowed specimens from several sources. The 

 result is that I have before me a comparatively large number of 



Fig. 2.— Wings of male Epophthalmia, species ? fkom Burma. 



individuals. At the same time, the total number is not large and 

 too few localities are represented. Macromias, with the exception 

 of illinoiensis, are rare in collections. This is to be explained by 

 their comparative rarit}' in nature, by their occurrence during a 

 season when collectors are generally not actively engaged in field work, 

 and by the difficulty of their capture because of their flight over 

 deeper water and their swiftness. In life few insects rival them in 

 beauty, power, and individuality. The few females taken, as com- 

 pared with the number of males, is also an unfortunate factor which 

 adds to the incompleteness of this paper. 



In the following descriptions I have endeavored to indicate espe- 

 cially those characters which will aid in the recognition of the species 

 as far as I am able to do so with the material before me. More formal 

 and detailed descriptions at this time would, it seems to me, serve 

 rather to confuse than emphasize the purpose of this paper. Since 



