448 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the female armed with numerous stout spines below; posterior hamule 

 of male directed posteriorly. 



Nymph. Abdomen wider than the head ; flattened, lanceolate pointed, 

 suddenly narrowed on the ninth segment, which is longer than its apical 

 width; no impressed middorsal line, instead, a ridge without distinct 

 dorsal hooks; lateral spines on segments 7-9 or 8-9, none on segment 6; 

 median lobe of labium prominently rounded or dome shaped, and usually 

 bearing, besides the usual brush of flattened hairs, a median tooth. 



KEY 

 d) Imago with ahdominal appendages black ; superiors of male with an in- 

 ferior tooth ; nymph with bare median narrow ridge on the abdomen; 



lateral spines on segments 7-9 G. spicatus 



aa) Imago with a tooth in the middle of the occipital border. Abdominal 

 appendages yellowish, no inferior tooth on the male superiors. Nymph 

 with an obtuse scurfy or rough pubescent middorsal ridge on the abdo- 

 men ; lateral spines on segments 7-9 G. villosipes 



aaa) Imago with no tooth in middle of hind border of the occiput; abdominal 

 appendages yellow ; male superior appendages apparently bifurcated at 

 apex; nymjyh unknown ., G. furcifer 



Gomphus abbreviatus Selys 



1878 Gomphus abbreviatus Selys, Acad. Belg. (2) Bui. 46 : 464 (original 



description) 

 1890 Aeshna abbreviata Kirby, Cat. Neur. Odon. p. 66 (bibliography) 



1892 Gomphus abbreviatus Banks, Am. ent.soe. Trans. 19 : 351 (bibli- 



ography) 



1893 Gomphus abbreviatus Calvert, Am. ent. soc. Trans. 20:243 (de- 



scription) 

 This species is not recorded from New York state. In June of 1897 I 

 found some nymphs at Ithaca N. Y. in Fall creek opposite the Cornell 

 insectary, and bred a few of them. The imagos I did not observe at 

 large. Nothing has been written as to their habits. The species appears 

 to be distributed through the northeastern states as far south as Penn- 

 sylvania. It was not found at Saranac Inn. 



Nymph. Measures in length 23-24 mm; abdomen 14 mm; hind 

 femur 5 mm; width of head 5 mm, of abdomen 6.5 mm. It differs from 

 G. b r e v i s nymph only in size and in the relative length of the foremost 

 lateral spines on the abdomen, characters already stated in the table; 

 there is no need, therefore, of a separate description of it, since G. 

 brevis is described in full below, and the description would be but 

 repetition of the characters stated for that species. I will therefore add 

 but a note as to the differences of the situations in which I found the two 

 nymphs : abbreviatus in the rocky basins of a gorge traversed by a 

 foaming creek, destitute of the commoner large aquatic plants; brevis, 

 in the bed of a reed-choked, slow flowing, upland stream. 



