Calvert: Odonata of the Neotropical Region. 93 



known to me, I do not care to undertake a revision of the neotrop- 

 ical members of this cosmopolitan genus, but I have given descriptions 

 and figures of the pectoral color markings, which seem distinctive spe- 

 cifically, and which appear to be identical, or nearly so, in both sexes 

 of the same species. These will aid greatly in the identifications, I 

 hope, although they too have the disadvantage of being obscured in 

 some cases by pruinosity in age. 



20. Lestes scalaris sp. nov. 



(Plate I, figs. 6, 17, 18.) 



Lestes scalaris Hagen, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., xi, p. 289, 1867 (no de- 

 scription) . 



<S ( Young). Dorsal surface of head metallic-green ; a spot caudo- 

 laterad to each lateral ocellus, frons, clypeus, labrum, and genae pale 

 brown ; rear of head obscure, except around the occipital foramen, 

 which with the labium is pale yellow. 



Thorax pale yellowish-brown, each mesepisternum with a somewhat 

 metallic bluish-brown stripe, attaining the anterior mesothoracic mar- 

 gin, gradually narrowing upward from .36 mm. near its lower end to 

 .24 mm. at five-sevenths' length where it abruptly widens on its outer 

 side to .5 mm., the outer edge thence continuing as a straight line, 

 the inner (mesial) edge curving outward to meet it at an angle of 

 45°-5o° and without quite reaching the antealar sinus ; at mid-height 

 this mesepisternal stripe is about .16 mm. distant from the mid-dorsal 

 carina. Mesepimeron with an irregular bluish-brown stripe apparently 

 composed of two elongated spots — the upper the longer — connected 

 by a line. The markings of the pectus consist of an elongated dark 

 brown metepimeral spot superior to the anterior end of the latero-ven- 

 tral carina, a brown spot between the two branches of the posterior fork 

 of the same carina, and the following brown metasternal markings : a 

 streak parallel to the latero-ventral carina and lying posterior to the 

 level of the anterior metepimeral spot, a pair of round spots near the 

 hind end of the mid-ventral groove, and a median posterior spot. 



Dorsum of abdominal segments brownish, with metallic-blue reflec- 

 tion, sides inferiorly paler, apical fifth or sixth of 3-7 forming a darker 

 ring. 



Superior abdominal appendages yellowish in the proximal half, 

 darker distally. (For description of shape see next stage.) 



Legs yellowish with indistinct darker lines. Pterostigma pale 

 brown. 



