Odonata from Mesopotamia. 297 



dorsum of segments 2 to 6 oi- 7 towards tlieir distal end, with 

 traces of dark lines on the last segment in the male. 



Anax parthenope, Selys. 



18 c? c? , 13 ? ? , 24-31. v., 1-0. vi., 12-20. vi., 22-28. vi. 



(^'•^•^'■'?)- . . . ^ , 



A Hue series, o£ which all the males have the wings suftiised 



more or less with yellowisli on the distal two-thirds, some of 

 them clearer at the tips. The females show two forms, those 

 with hyaline wini,^s and the base of the abdomen intensely 

 blue, and others in which the blue generally is absent and 

 replaced by a greenish colour, tlie 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. 



Eis ('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 tiie abdomen intensely blue, and 

 the wings hyaline ; the otlier (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 tiiese two forms may be piiases 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 jEtichmt. Brewitt-Taylor in his notes 

 evidently considered that theie were two forms — one yellowish 

 green with dark wings, another blue with iiyaline 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. Ho records that on the 

 evening of the 22nd June he "caught in all four yellow- 

 green females and one blue" These ex;imples, I assume, aio 

 now before me, but it is difficult to gauge the extent to which 

 the colours insiy have been affected by post-mortem changes. 

 None of them can be considered ver}- old ; the dark markings 

 on the abdomen are chocolate-brown, not black. The ex- 

 am^de with hyaline wings has the base of the abdomen bright 



