GUAM ACASTE— SANTA CRUZ 463 



additional specimens of Metaleptobasis. This dragonfly was 

 less abundant than previously, but Professor Tristan was 

 able to catch a female of Stauropklebia, one of the largest 

 of the stout-bodied forms, and we found a few others of 

 interest. The Stauropklebia female, apparently of the same 

 subspecies as the males seen or taken at Guapiles in June 

 (5. reticulata obscura), was four inches long and had a wing- 

 spread of nearly six inches. Its great eyes were bright 

 green in life, the remainder of the head a greenish-blue, the 

 thorax and abdomen pale blue, the wings uncolored. Both 

 sexes have the fore surface of the thorax (mesepisterna) 

 studded with short, pale, rather stout spines. The name 

 Stauropklebia, literally "cross-vein," was applied to this 

 insect in allusion to the peculiarity, rare among drag- 

 onflies, that the subcosta, or second of the long veins of 

 the wings (that oh the front edge being the first) crosses 

 and goes beyond the nodus, i. e., the stout transverse vein 

 where the front border of the wing "dips in" at about mid- 

 length. In most dragonflies the subcosta stops at the nodus. 

 Most of the time was occupied in walking through the under- 

 growth trying to examine every twig and branch for the 

 insects desired, and after several hours of such minute 

 search both eyes and attention were unable to do more. 

 We returned to Santa Cruz for our breakfast and the after- 

 noon was spent, as was often the case here, in preparing and 

 making notes on the specimens gathered. 



On January 28 Padre Velasco took us on an excursion to 

 the village of Santa Barbara, lying to the east of Santa Cruz, 

 to witness the excavation of an old Indian grave. Seiior 

 Bonilla lent horses to Professor Tristan and me, and his son, 

 a student in the Liceo at San Jose, went with us. We crossed 

 the Rio Medio and a smaller stream, the Frio, and then went 

 over the Cerro Tamarindo. The road here was simply a 

 sort of gutter of rough and irregular shape worn in more or 



