448 Mr. H. Campion on FahriciuHS Tyjyes of 



In 1781 he identified it with Mecistogaster lucretia, Druiy, 

 and some colour is lent to this identification by the fact that 

 both species were described from Fothergill's collection. 

 Drury stated that his lucretia came from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, while Fabricius gave India as the habitat of his 

 linearis ; but, of course, Mecistogaster is exclusively a Neo- 

 tropical genus. Whatever may be the identity of the 

 Fabiician type, the species in tlie Banks Collection is quite 

 distinct from that figured by Diury. The specimen before 

 us was examined by De Selys, and referred by him to the 

 species which he described as M. linearis, F. (Bull. Acad. 

 Belg. (2) X. p. 22, 1860). A note appended to that descrip- 

 tion may be usefully quoted here : — '' L'exemplaire de la 

 collection Banks a Londres, qui passe pour avoir ete etiquete 

 par Fabricius, est un male de cette espece, a pterosligma 

 brun (semi-adulte). Les figures de Drury et de Sulzer, 

 citees a I'appui dans V Entomologia systematica, sont au con- 

 traire la lucretia. Quant h la description de Fabricius, elle 

 pent s'appliquer aux deux es))^ces. Si I'on devait prendre le 

 linearis de Fabricius pour synonyme de lucretia (nom plus 

 ancien), il faudrait adopter pour uotre espece linearis le nom 

 de tullia, de Burmeister.*' 



II. Specimens in the General Collection of the 

 Beitish Museum. 



In 1793 (Ent. Syst. ii.) Fabricius referred to three 

 dragonflies in the British Museum Collection. These were 

 Lihellula trimaculata, De Geer ( = L. lydia, Drury), p. 374, 

 no. 3 ; L. sinuata {=: Palpopleia-a lucia, Drury), p. 378, 

 no. 17 ; and L. vibrans, p. 380, no. 30, The first is involved 

 in much obscurit}', and the second has not been traced at all, 

 but L. vibrans has been identified with certainty. Unlike 

 the Banksian insects, the two Fabrician specimens now iu 

 the General Collection carry a plain buff pin-label, with the 

 two upper corners cut off, and bearing the name of the 

 species in Fabricius's handwriting. 



(1) Libellula lata, F. ? . 

 (= L. lydia, Drury, $ .) 



Label :— " Libellula lata Fab.'^ 



Apparently this name was never published, and the only 

 reference to it whicj^ I can find is one contained in an inter- 

 leaved and annotated copy of Linnseus^s ' Systema Naturae ' 

 (ed. xii.). This book is preserved iu the British Museum 



