423 



ON THE NEW GENUS AVSTROGYNACANTHA [Neurop- 

 tera: Odonata] WITH DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 



By R. J. Tillyard, M.A., F.E.S. 



(Plate v.) 



In his unpublished MSS.* de Selys has described a new species 

 Gynacantha heterogena from a unique female in his collection. 

 This interesting species has ever since remained known to odona- 

 tologists by this unique example only. Two years ago M. Rene 

 Martin sent me the description and locality — Rockhampton, 

 Queensland — and I was hopeful that I might be fortunate 

 enough to discover the male. While examining and naming the 

 fairly extensive collection of Odonata in the Macleay Museum, 

 Sydney University — most of which are Queensland insects taken 

 by Sir William Macleay's collectors — I found two males of a 

 species which evidently coincided with G. heterogena. One 

 of these was presented to me in exchange by Mr. Masters, the 

 Curator of the Museum; and as it is from Rockhampton, the 

 same locality as the unique female of de Selys, I have founded 

 my description on it and made it the type-male. This year, 

 during my visit to Cooktown, I searched carefully for it and for 

 other species of Gynacantha, but the continuous heavy rains 



* The species is not recorded in the Zoological Record, which I have 

 carefully searched through twice from 1866 to present date. It is not 

 recorded in Kirby's ' Catalogue of the Odonata,' but it is given by M. Rene 

 Martin, without description, in his ' Odonates du Continent Australien 

 1902.' I have therefore concluded that the description was known to M. 

 Martin but not to the world, and is probably one of de Selys' numerous 

 unpublished MSS. species. 



