DESCRIPTIONS OF AUSTRALIAN ^SCHNIN^. 35 



transparent whitish or yellowish. Pterostigma shorter and narrower, 3 to 

 3"5 mm., not so biconvex, only 0-6 mm. wide (Plate 8. fig. 14). Venation 

 more open. Brown bands similar to those of type, but usually paler. 

 Memhranule white, slightly longer (2-2 mm.) and distinctly narrower than in 

 type-form (Plate 8. fig. 30). Usual nodal venation as shown in Plato 8. 

 fig. 22. Triangles rnther shorter, with basal side very close tip to arcidus 

 (Plate 8. fig. 18). 



Thorax with humeral bands slightly paler and broader ; legs with tibite 

 darker brown. Abdomen as in type-form. Appendages of ^ : — Superior 

 only 2-8 mm. long, nearly straight, converging ; inferior shaped as in type- 

 form, reaching to about 1 mm. from tips of superiors (Plate 8- figs. 9-10), 



Though the males of this and the type-form are so distinct, it would be 

 impossible to separate the females except on the general paler appearance of 

 a series of 2\ brevicauda ? , compared with a series of the type (^ . 



Types: ^ ?, Coll. Tillyard. (Mount Macedon, Victoria; taken by 

 Mr. G. Lyell.) 



Habitat. Mount Macedon and Gippsland, Victoria. Kosciusko and Southern 

 Alps, N.S.W. 2000-5500 feet. 



It appears to be much rarer than the type-form. Though it may be 

 taken sparingly around Kosciusko every year, yet its appearance on Mount 

 Macedon is exceedingly capricious, and there can be little doubt that in the 

 colder climate the larva only develops very slowly. On January 1st 190G 

 my friends Messrs. G. Lyell and S. Angel found it in swarms round about 

 the waterfall on Mount Macedon. The day was exceedingly hot, and the 

 dragonflies kept bathing in the spray or settling half torpid on the damp 

 rocks. Many were caught by hand, and I received a fine series of about 

 twenty specimens. Though a careful watch has been kept for it, it has not 

 appeared in the same locahty since. Along the gorges of the Uppei- Snowy 

 River, on the slopes of Mount Kosciusko, I found it very sparinoly and have 

 received one or two specimens from collectors each year. It emerges at the 

 end of December, and is probably over early in February. 



With regard to the shorter superior appendages of the male, it is a verv 

 interesting fact to record that males of the type-form are often taken with 

 their superior appendages (either one or both) broken off just at a point 

 about 1 mm. beyond the tip of the inferior. Viewed laterally, there is a 

 slight curve from this point to the tips, and I am of opinion that the 

 appendages are broken when the male is attempting to seize the female. At 

 that time both indulge in a wild chase up and down the creeks, and so rapid 

 are the evolutions, and so difficult the struggle for mastery on the part of 

 the male, that it is not to be wondered at if the slender tips break off 

 The broken appendages are just as useful for holding the female since 

 [ have once or twice taken a pair in cop., in which the male had a broken 



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