THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XLVIL] JANUARY, 1914. [No. 608 



SOME EEMARKS ON THE ATLANTIC FORMS OF 

 SYMPETEUM STRIOLATUM, Charp. 



By Kenneth J. Morton, F.E.S. 



In the ' Revue des Odonates ' (1850), p. 43, in discussing the 

 Lihellula ruficollis of Charpentier, de Selys writes as follows : — 

 " M. Hagen m'a communique deux des trois exemplaires types 

 re9us de Portugal par M. de Charpentier ; ce sont de vrais strio- 

 lata males tres adultes, mais en mauvais etat de conservation. 

 . . . Les pieds sont comme tourn6s au gras et les lignes 

 jaunes sont tres-etroites, surtout sur les cuisses (qui au premier 

 abord paraissent noiratres), mais elles existent. La taille est 

 tres grande, mais pas sans exemple en Belgique." Lower down 

 on the same page we read : " J'ai vu dans la collection de Miss 

 Ball a Dublin, des exemplaires males adultes qui avaient aussi 

 les pieds tres-peu lignes de jaune." 



In the "Revision des Diplax pal6arctiques " (* Annales de la 

 Soc. Ent. Belg.,' xxviii. p. 35 (1884), de Selys describes a race 

 of S. striolatum from Madeira under the name of nigrifemur, of 

 which he says: — " Les femurs sont noiratres sans ligne jaunatre, 

 et aux-tibias le jaunatre n'occupe qu'une raie externe etroite. 

 La taille est tres grande : abdomen (? 27 : $ 26-29. Aile 

 inferieure c? 30-33 ; $ 30-33 ... les parties noiratres des cotes 

 du thorax sont tres foncees, de sorte que les deux bandes 

 jaunatres qui les divisent, sont fort tranchees." 



These are the first indications of the existence of what may 

 be termed an Atlantic race of S. striolatum characterized by 

 darker femora, and usually by more strongly pronounced lateral 

 thoracic markings than in the more typical forms. 



The next occasion on which exceptionally dark S. striolatum 

 are alluded to, the insects in question came from a somewhat 

 unexpected and in some respects rather remote point, and the 

 imagination of those who had to do with them seems to have 

 been rather exercised concerning them. 



Mr. Lucas in ' Entomologist,' May, 1900, p. 139, recorded 

 the capture at Stornoway by Mr. Fremlin of two females of a 

 Sympetrum, and wrote of them as follows : — " The conclusion to 

 which we must come, seeing there are two specimens thus pre- 



ENTOM. — JANUARY. 1914. B 



