298 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 818 



proposed, not to throw away the new genera, 

 but to designate them by capital letters; the 

 first described (Sympycna) by A; the nest de- 

 scribed (Megalestes) by B; the third de- 

 scribed (Archilestes) by 0, etc. Then if the 

 species we designate as Lestes 3 were subse- 

 quently placed under Sympycna, its fuU 

 designation would be Lestes 3A. And if a 

 new species were subsequently described as a 

 species of Sympycna, its designation under 

 our system would be Lestes Al. Thus two 

 places would be sufficient for the designation 

 of a species until the numbers described under 

 a single name reach 10, and three, until they 

 reach 100. And, moreover, these few places 

 suffice to show two most important things: 

 the subgroup under which the species was de- 

 scribed, and the one in which it now reposes. 

 Varietal designations could then be made, as 

 frequently they are now made, by the addi- 

 tion of small letters a, b, c, etc., likewise in 

 their historical order. 



I have selected this illustration to avoid 

 even the suspicion of unfairness. The sub- 

 family Lestinas is an example of our present 

 system at its best. For our day and genera- 

 tion the names are unusually brief and sig- 

 nificant. For the most part they are pro- 

 nounceable, and nobody has " monkeyed " with 

 them. Nobody has succeeded in finding a 

 defunct name older than Lestes to be dug up 

 and set up instead, to the confusion of the 

 entire group. Synonyms are few and the 

 validity of no generic name is in dispute. 

 And it is safe to say that if things had gone 

 as well elsewhere as in this group, there would 

 not be our present agitation over codes and 

 rules. But I wish to point out that, even so, 

 there are great advantages to be derived from 

 a simpler and more practical system. There- 

 fore, I have set the group in the proposed 

 systematic order in a subsequent column and 

 opposite each species I have written the name 

 it now bears. 

 This list,° besides furnishing concise desig- 

 ^ I have omitted about two score species of 

 Lestes s. str. for want of room: all featureless 

 for our present purpose. All synonyms and all 

 the " problems " of the subfamily are included 



Names 

 Proposed 



Lestes 1 



Lesies 2 



Lestes 3A 



Lestes 4 



Ijestes 5 



Lestes 6 



Lestes 7 



Lestes 8 



Lestes 9 



Lestes 10 



Lestes 11 



Lestes 12 



Lestes 13 



Lestes 14 



Lestes 15 



Lestes 16 



Lestes 17 



Lestes 18 



Lestes 19C 



Lestes 20 



Lestes 21 

 Lestes 22 

 Lestes 23 

 Lestes 24 

 Lestes 25D 

 Lestes 26 

 Lestes 27 

 Lestes 28 

 Lestes 29 

 Lestes 30 

 Lestes 31 

 Lestes 32 

 Lestes 33 

 Lestes 34B 

 Lestes Al 

 Lestes 35 

 Lestes A2 

 Lestes A3 

 Lestes 36 

 Lestes El 

 Lestes E2 

 Lestes 37 

 Lestes Fl 

 Lestes CI 

 Lestes A3a 

 Lestes E3 



Names Now in Use. 



Lestes barbara Fabricius 

 Lestes spoDsa van der Linden 

 Sympycna fusca van der Linden 

 Lestes viridis van der Linden 

 Lestes leucopsallis Charpentier 

 Lestes forcipula Charpentier 

 Lestes virens Charpentier 

 Sympycna phallata Charpentier 

 Lestes macrostigma Eversmann 

 Lestes paedisca Evermann 

 Lestes nympha Stephens 

 Lestes pictetl Fonscolombe 

 Lestes rectangularis Say 

 Lestes undulata Say 

 Lestes eurina Say 

 Lestes cingulata Burmeister 

 Lestes plaeiata Burmeister 

 Lestes virgata Burmeister 

 Archilestes grandis Rambur 

 Lestes tenuata Kambur 

 Lestes forcipafa Rambur 

 Lestes forficula Rambur 

 Lestes pallida Rambur 

 Lestes analis Rambur 

 Platy lestes platystylus Rambur 

 Lestes colensolis W'hite 

 Lestes spectrum Kolenati 

 Lestes alacris Hagen 

 Lestes stulta Hagen 

 Lestes congener Hagen 

 Lestes vidua Hagen 

 Lestes unguiculata Hagen 

 Ijcstes inequalis Walsh 

 Megalestes major de Selys 

 Sympycna ochracea Montrose 

 Lestes sraardulus Buchecber 

 Sympycna pjedisca Brauer 

 Sympycna annulata de Selys 

 Lestes drvas Kirby 

 Ortholestes clara Calvert 

 Ortholestes abbotti Calvert 

 Lestes obscura Kirby 

 Orolestes selysi McLacblan 

 Archilestes californica McLacblan 

 Sympycna annulata gobica Forster 

 Ortholestes octomaculata Martin 



1825 

 1825 

 1825 

 1825 

 1836 



1839 

 1839 

 1S39 

 1842 

 1842 

 1842 

 1842 

 184? 

 1842 

 1842 

 1346 

 1856 

 1801 

 18CI 

 1861 

 1861 

 1861 

 1862 

 1862 

 1864 

 1878 

 1880 

 1887 

 1890 

 1891 

 1893 

 1894 

 1893 

 1895 

 1900 

 1902 



nations for the species, shows at a glance the 

 history of the development of our knowledge 

 of the group. The species designations also 

 are of such nature that when isolated they will 

 carry much historical information with them: 

 whether early or lately described, whether re- 

 posing now in early or lately proposed sub- 

 divisions of the group : under what name orig- 

 inally described. And the distribution of valid 

 names and of synonjrms among the subgenera 

 is obvious at a glance. By adding a few con- 

 ventional signs to the list I have sought to 

 show that types may be indicated as well as at 

 present by an asterisk, and synonyms by a 

 sign of equality: and I might have used 

 another sign to indicate that some species 



down to the point where my annotated copy of 

 Kirby's " Catalogue of the Odonata " ends. 



