INDIAN DRAGONFLIES. 269 



llrothemis advena, Selys, Comptes rendus Soc. Ent. Belg., 4. v. (sep ) 

 (1878)— Id., Aim. Soc. Ent. Belg., 31,p. 69 (1887) 

 — Kirby, Cat. p. 24 (1890). 

 Expanse 52 mm. Length 30 mm. Hindwing 25 mm. Abdomen 20 mm. 



Male : head : eyes blackish brown above, paler or lilaceous at the sides 

 and beneath, in tenera) specimens the eyes are dark ochreous and paler 

 beneath and with a purplish tinge, the females are always of this colour 

 labrum ochreous, labium, and lower part of face pale olivaceous, upper part 

 of face and forehead with some blackish. In teneral specimens, the labrum 

 is pale yellow and the rest of the face and forehead is a waxy white as 

 is also the vesicle. In adult specimens a dark band develops on the fore- 

 head and is prolonged down at the sides of the eyes and the vesicle 

 becomes dark olivaceous. 



Prothorax and thorax black in the adult, the ventral side more or less 

 pruinescent, in teneral specimens they are of a waxy white with obscure 

 brown mid dorsal, humeral and lateral lines. The legs are straw coloured 

 on the flexor surfaces and blackish brown on the extensor but in the adult 

 they become wholly black. The bases of the femora yellowish. 



Abdomen black in the adult with the ventrum pruinescent. In the 

 teneral condition a waxy white with blackish brown markings on the 

 dorsum. These markings diffuse, broadening apically and more extensive 

 on the anal segments. In the last few segments, a prolongation of the 

 brown goes forward from the distal end of the segments laterally, to 

 enclose a spot of the ground colour. The last 3 segments are almost 

 entirely brown on the dorsum. 



Anal appendages yellowish or white, the superior strongly curved down- 

 ward and equal in length to the inferior. 



Wings peculiarly invisible owing to the neuration being a pale or dirty 

 white in colour. The stigma is bordered in front and behind with well- 

 defined black, the intervening part is almost translucent or slightly 

 opalescent. 



Female : very similar to the teneral male, but the brownish markings on 

 the thorax almost obsolete and the black markings of the abdomen replaced 

 by bright ochreous. Legs paler. Wings similar to the male. 



Sexual organs: male: lamina depressed, fissured and furnished with short 

 hairs : tentacul* short, triangular and the apex prolonged into a recurved 

 hood. The external tentacula represented only by a small protuberance. 



Lobe square. Female : border of 8th segment not dilated ; the vulvar 

 scale very small, depressed. Appendages small, white or creamy. 



Hah. — Lower Mesopotamia and Persian Gulf. Bushire. Very few 

 specimens appear to have found their way into collector's hands before the 

 war, a surprising fact when one considers how very common an insect it 

 is in its native country. I have seen it in countless swarms at Basra and 

 the lower Shat-el-Arab whilst it frequently takes to the sea and may be seen 

 in great numbers coming aboard steamers trafficking in the Gulf. I saw 

 one such swarm come on board the Ambulance Transport Varsova on 

 19th August 1919, quite one hundred miles south of the bar of the Shat-el- 

 Arab, but at the end of the same month not a single specimen was to be 

 seen on land at Basra. I saw a similar swarm in 1917 on board a ship a 

 few miles south of the Shat-el-Arab, all of which were teneral specimens. 

 It is quite possible that this species will eventually establish itself in Sind 

 and North- West India. 



On land it has habits similar to Diplacodes and is always found settling 

 on the ground or low shrubs. Barren, open desert lands appear to be 

 preferred. 



(To he continued.) 



I 



