Odonata from Mesopotamia. 297 
dorsum of segments 2 to 6 or 7 towards their distal end, with 
traces of dark lines on the last segment in the male. 
Anax parthenope, Selys. 
183 4,13 2 9, 24-31. v., 1-9. vi., 12-20. vi., 22-28. vi. 
(Basra). 
A fine series, of which all the males have the wings suffused 
more or less with yellowish on the distal two-thirds, some of 
them clearer at the tips. The females show two forms, those 
with hyaline wings and the base of the abdomen intensely 
blue, and others in which the blue generally is absent and 
replaced by a greenish colour, the wings in this form being 
tinted with brown of varying degrees of intensity, the brown 
colour increasing in depth distally and most conspicuous 
between the nodus and the distal end of the pterostigma but 
sometimes extending further, the apex, however, being usually 
clear. 
Ris (‘ Die schweizerischen Libellen,’ p. 28, 1885) says that 
in Switzerland there are two forms of the female: the one 
(probably younger examples) coloured very like the male, 
particularly with the base of the abdomen intensely blue, and 
the wings hyaline ; the other (probably comprising examples 
which have flown longer) is, with the exception of the black 
markings, uniformly yellow-brown, without blue at the base 
of the abdomen, and with the wings more or less, often very 
strongly, tinted with brown. ‘Thus, Ris seems to suggest 
that these two forms may be phases of the same thing, an 
explanation that does not appear to have been offered in con- 
nection with the blue and the green forms of the female in 
certain species of AZschna. Brewitt-Taylor in his notes 
evidently considered that there were two forms—one yellowish 
green with dark wings, another blue with hyaline wings or 
only with a trace of clouding. In his series none of those 
with intensely blue base of the abdomen appears to be old, so 
far favouring Ris’s view. However, Brewitt-Taylor states 
that he had seen coupled pairs in which the respective females 
were of the blue and the greenish-yellow form, so that the 
blue appears to be sexually mature. He records that on the 
evening of the 22nd June he “caught in all four yellow- 
green females and one blue.’’ These examples, I assume, are 
now before me, but it is difficult to gauge the extent to which 
the colours may have been affected by post-mortem changes. 
None of them can be considered very old ; the dark markings 
on the abdomen are chocolate-brown, not black. The ex- 
ample with hyaline wings has the base of the abdomen bright 
