218 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Part 3 ' ' 



LIFE HISTORIES OF ODONATA 



SUBORDER ZYGOPTBRA 



Damsel flies 



BY JAMES G. NEEDHAM 



The discussion of this suborder here is to be regarded as a 

 continuation of the study of the order from Museum bulletin 47, 

 wherein the suborder Anisoptera was treated, and 62 life his- 

 tories were detailed. Only the fauna of the State is discussed, 

 and the bibliographic notes have here the same limited scope and 

 purpose. No descriptions of imagos are given, but the reader 

 is referred to well known descriptive catalogues, and it is hoped 

 that the keys to imagos given herewith, together with the 

 figures, may prove sufficient for the determination of our species. 

 My purpose has been to make known the immature stages, and 

 to that end, nymphs of all the species whose life histories are 

 known are newly described. 



In the suborder Zygoptera 38 species have been listed from 

 New York State hitherto: 36 by Calvert^ and two additional by 

 Davis.^ To this number we are able to add four species: 

 Lestes vigilax from Cold Spring Harbor L. I.; Enal- 

 lagma piscinarium and E. pollutum from Ithaca 

 and Nehallennia gracilis from Saranac Inn. Of the 

 42 species thus known from the State, we have reared 23, and 

 describe herewith, in more or less detail, their nymphs. All 

 these descriptions are new, and apparently the first that have- 

 been written for our species though Hagen^ has briefly stated 

 the group characters of our genera of Calopterygidae. Of these 

 23, three are Calopterygidae, five are Lestinae and the remaining 

 15 are Agrioninae: and, fortunately, the nymphs of all our 

 genera are now known. 



1 Thirty-five in his Odonata of New York State. N. Y. Ent. Soc Jour 

 3:39-48 and 5:91-96 and one in Ent. News. 12:326. 



2Preliminary List of the Dragon Flies of Staten Island. N Y Ent Soc 

 Jour. 6:195-98. 



SEssai d'un Synopsis des Larves des Caloipterygines. G R. Ent. Soc 

 Belg. 1880. 23:65-67. 



