30 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Jan., 'o6 



Notes and News. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS FROM ALL QUARTERS 

 OF THE GLOBE. 



Nomenclature of Certain North American Odonata. — Recent 

 work on the " Biologia Centrali-Americana " has directed my attention 

 toquestions of nomenclature of some familiar North American species 

 as follows : 



i. Hagen, in his Synopsis of i86r, gave, as one of the species of 

 Libellula, L. luctuosa Burm., and placed L. basalis Say as a synonym 

 thereof. In his Synopsis of 1875, he gave basalis Say as the name of the 

 species and placed luctuosa Burm. as the synonym, and American authors 

 since have followed his later example. Hagen's reversal was apparently 

 due to a change in his ideas as to the relative priority of Burmeister's 

 and Say's names, both of which were published in 1839. On this question 

 I have no fuller information than that given by Hagen in Psyche, v, 

 p. 369, but the correct name of this species now appears to be ascertain- 

 able on other grounds. Mr. Kirby, in his catalogue of 1890, p. 29, uses 

 luctuosa as the name of the species and basalis as the synonym. He 

 does not indicate his reason for so doing, as he has done on the same 

 page in the case of axilena vs. lydia. A study of this Catalogue, how- 

 ever, led me to the following data : Newman, in 1833, described Sympe- 

 trum basalis (now regarded as a synonym of 6*. sanguineum Miiller, 

 1764). Stephens, in 1835, redescribed Newman's species as Libellula 

 basalis ; consequently both Say's Libellula basalis of 1839, an< ^ Libellula 

 basalis Burm., 1839, a name for a still different species, are homonyms 

 and must be rejected. The proper names and the synonymy of the 

 last two species would therefore be — 



Libellula luctuosa Burm., 1839. 



Libellula basalis Say, 1839. 

 Libellula odiosa Hagen, 1861. 

 Belonia luctuosa et odiosa Kirby, 1890. 



Tramea incerta (Ramb., 1842). 



Libellula basalis Burm., 1839. 

 Tramea basalis Kirby, 1890. 

 2. Hagen, in his Synopsis of 1861, established the genera Erythemis 

 (p. 168), under which stand as species: 1. furcata Hag., 2 bicolor 

 Erich., 3. longipesHag, and Mesothemis (p. 170) including 1. simpli- 

 cicollis Say, 2. collocata Hag., 3. corrupta Hag., 4. illota Hag., 5. 

 attala Selys, 6. mithra Selys, 7. longipennis Burm. He did not spe- 

 cify a type-species for either genus. This was first done by Mr. Kirby, 

 in his Revision of the Libellulinae of 1889, in which he named bicolor as 

 the type of Erythemis, and simplicicollis as that of Mesothemis. Bicolor 

 is a synonym of peruviana Ramb., and between this species and simpli- 

 cicollis I can find no differences of generic value. Btfth peruviana 



