NOTES ON NEOTROPICAL DRAGONFLIES, OR ODONATA. 



By Edward Bruce Williamson, 



Of Bluff ton, Indiana. 



These notes consist of four brief papers relating to agrionines of 

 the genera Metaleptohasis, Palaemnema, Telagrion, and Proioneura. 

 While these four papers are distinct and of different characters, it is 

 believed that their publication under one general head will be found 

 to be convenient. The Guatemala material was collected by myself; 

 that from British Guiana and Trinidad by my father, L. A. William- 

 son, B. J. Rainey, and myself. 



1. THREE NEW SPECIES OF METALEPTOBASIS. 



As Metaleptohasis is now understood * less than a dozen specimens 

 have been described or mentioned in the literature relating to the 

 several species. On March 8, 1912, my father, L. A. Williamson, 

 and I were collecting at a small swamp about 1} miles west of Cumuto, 

 Trinidad, on the north side of and immediately adjacent to the 

 railroad track. This is a small swamp, near the railroad, surrounded 

 by higher ground, full of logs and grass, and containing fish and 

 alligators. The larger part of the swamp near the railroad is exposed 

 to the sun, and this portion of the swamp apparently has resulted 

 from the fill for the railroad grade. Back from the railroad the 

 swamp is interspersed with small thickets which shade the ground, 

 and at the extreme upper portion it ends in woods through which a 

 small and very muddy creek flows into the swamp. In the after- 

 noon, after several hours at the swamp, we detected for the first 

 time a slender dragonfly in grass, and clinging to small twigs and 

 vines just at the border or slightly back from the border of the swamp 

 and in the shade. Having once found it we could hardly believe 

 we had overlooked it during the earlier part of the day. But a short 

 time could be spent that day looking for them but we succeeded in 

 taking 18 males. Wishing to get females and more specimens Mr. 

 B. J. Rainey and I returned to the swamp on March 10, 1912, and 

 spent the day there. In addition to many other things we took 52 



i Calvert, Philip P. Biologia Centrali- Americana, Odonata, p, 386, November, 1907; Contributions to 

 a knowledge of the Odonata of the Neotropical Region, exclusive of Mexico and Central America, 

 Ann. Carnegie Mus., vol. 6, No. 1, p. 197, October 7, 1909. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 48— No. 2089. 



601 



