INDIAN DRAG ON FLIES. 



257 



Zy.iomma seychellarum, Martin, Mew. Soc. Zool. France, 9, p. 103 (189ti). 



Expanse 67mm. Length 48mm. 



Male and female similar. 



Head : eyes rich olive green, of uniform depth above and beneath, occiput 

 reddish brown, vesicle dark brown, epistome, frons and labrum a pale brown. 



Pro thorax pale brown. 



Thorax pale brown, rather darker on the dorsum. No markings. 



Abdomen light warm brown with moderately broad, blackish annules at 

 the intersegmental nodes. Legs brown. 



Wings hyaline or a little smoky, the apices usually but variably suffused 

 with brown as far inwards as the middle of stigma, a brownish ray in the 

 superior costal space not reaching the Ist antenodal nervure and a similar 

 ray in the cubital space extending out as far as the cubital nervure. A 

 small triangle of the same colour at the anal angle in the hind-wing. Mem- 

 brane greyish black. Stigma brown. 



Rab. — Throughout the plains of India probably as far north as the foot 

 hills of the Himalayas. Karachi, common at the sewage farm. Bombay 

 and Madras, Poona. This insect is another one of our night-flying dragon- 

 flies. It has a very short duration of flight, usually of not longer than 

 half or three quarters of an hour. In Poona, specimens are seen on the 

 wing for the first time at about 7 p.m. and go to rest at about 7-45 p.m. In 

 Bombay they appear rather later and are seen until darkness obscures 

 them. I have seen them on the wing on several occasions during the day- 

 time but only in situations, where an artificial twilight reigned, such as 

 down deep wells or actually in the precincts of buildings where they were 

 hawking mosquitoes in the darkened corridors. Occasionally they may be 

 put up from bushes whilst beating dense jungle. Their nocturnal habits 

 may have some connection with the large size and uniform colouring of the 

 eyes and also the hood-like vesicle which shades in the central ocellus and 

 thus cuts oft' peripheral rays of light. Their food appears to be exclusively 

 mosquitoes. It is a curious coincidence that the apex of the loop is open 

 as in Tholymis tillarga, another night-flying species. 



Genus — Camacinia, Kirby. 

 Camacima, Kirby, Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond. 12, pp. 260 266 (1889)— Karsch 

 Berlin, Ent. Zts. 33, pp. 356, 359 (1890)— Kruger, Stett. 

 Ent. Ztg., 64, p. 253 (1903). 



YiG. 61. — Wings of male Camacinia gigantea, showing neuration (x 2)^ 

 Head large and broad, the lower face projecting, bull-dog-like, forehead 

 rounded, suture moderately deep and splitting the frons into two horse- 

 shoe shaped, flattened areas, vesicle high and overlapping the central 

 ocellus as in Zyxomma. 

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