444 



ON THE GENUS NANNODYTHEMIS, WITH DESCRIP- 

 TIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 



[Neuroptera : Odonata.] 



By R. J. Tillyard, M.A., F.E.§. 



(Plate vi.) 



The genus N annodythemis was proposed in 1868 by Brauer* 

 to receive an aberrant species of the Libellulince from Australia, 

 which became the type under the name of N. australis. It is a 

 short stumpy-looking insect with brilliant red abdomen; and as 

 it sits about on the reed-stems, with its wings depressed and 

 abdomen curved, it irresistibly suggests some kind of wasp. 

 Brauer's specimens were from Moreton Bay, Queensland, and I 

 have found it to be fairly common in coastal swamps in New 

 South Wales, especially at Byron Bay. 



While on a visit to Western Australia, in January, 1907, I 

 found in a swamp at Wilgarrup, near Bridgetown, an insect 

 very similar to the above species. I took it to be i\\ australis; 

 but, later on, when I had the two series side by side in my 

 collection, I could see considerable differences, not only of size, 

 but of venation and colouration; and I made a note suggesting 

 that the Western Australian form was a new species. However, 

 as I possessed no description of Brauer's species and had not seen 

 the types, I published the western species as N. australis Brauer, f 

 only remarking on the greater size of the western form. Later 

 on I wrote to Dr. Ris, the expert on Libellulince, and to M. Rene 

 Martin, mentioning these circumstances, and I was glad to find 

 that they too had recognised, in de Selys' collection, two distinct 



* Brauer, Verh. zool-bot. Gesell. Wien, xviii. pp.369, 726(1868). 

 t See "The Dragonflies of Western Australia," these Proceedings, 1907, 

 Vol.xxxii., p. 723. 



