242 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM - 



Argia apicalis Say 

 Plate 17, fig. 1 

 1839 Agrion apicalis Say, Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. Jour. 8:410 

 1861 Agrion apicale Hagen, Synopsis Neur. N. Am. p.91 

 1803 Argia apicalis Calvert, Am. Ent. Soc. Trans. 20:233 

 1898 Agrion apicalis, Davis, N. Y. Ent. Soc. Jour. 6:196 (listed 



from Staten Island) 

 1890 Argia apicalis Kellicott, Odon. Ohio, p.26 (description) 

 190O Argia apicalis Williamson, Dragon Flies Ind. p.2S4 



This species I did not find either at Saranac Inn or at Ithaca, 

 but 1 bred it in 1895 at Galesburg 111., and in 1896 at Havana 

 III. At Galesburg it was exceedingly abundant on the clayey 

 banks of a rather deep woodland pond ; at Havana it is exceed- 

 ingly abundant at the mouth of the Spoon river, and on the 

 west bank of the Illinois river below that point. On the sandy 

 east bank of the Illinois river I did not observe it at all. 



Imagos when fully mature are of a very bright, beautiful 

 blue color, unobscured by pruinosity, as in the last species. 

 But they are long in attaining their full coloration, and teneral 

 specimens are of a pale flesh tint. I observed the imagos, both 

 teneral and mature, at Galesburg feeding voraciously on adult 

 €hironomids. Transformation takes place on some bank or 

 projecting timber within a few inches of the edge of the water. 



Nymph. Length 12.5mm, gills 5mm additional, abdomen 

 8mm; width of head 3.1mm. Antennae six-jointed. Lateral 

 setae three, occasionally four, but then the fourth is much 

 smaller than the others. Median lobe of labium with a median 

 Y-shaped chitinization, the arms of the Y projecting forward. 

 Gills half as wide as long, with margins parallel for a distance, 

 usually showing a paler transverse streak at three fourths their 

 length. Wing tips reaching well across the sixth abdominal 

 segment. 



Nymphs of this species kept in an aquarium at Galesburg 

 intermittently swayed the abdomen from side to side, appar- 

 ently as an aid to respiration; yet other nymphs in the same 

 aquarium, having lost their gills, did not seem to suffer in con- 

 sequence, though kept for weeks, and finally transformed into 

 perfect specimens. 



Argia violacea Hagen 

 Plate 13, fig. 4, 5 

 1861 Agrionviolaceum Hagen, Synopsis Neur. N. Am. p.90 

 1893 Argia violacea Calvert, Am. Ent. Soc. Trans. 23:233 



