A NEW GENUS AND SPECIES OF DAMSELFLY 
FROM SOUTHERN HAITI (ODONATA)* 
By Kenneth A. Christiansen 
Cambridge, Mass. 
The new species herein described was collected by Dr. 
Marston Bates in September, 1934, at an altitude of 4,000 
feet in the Laselle Mountains of Southern Haiti. It rep- 
resents a strikingly new addition to the Neotropical 
fauna. Every external characteristic appears to point 
toward a relationship with the family Synlestidae, and 
the penes have a remarkable resemblance to the penes of 
the African genus Chlorolestes ; however, until the nymph 
has been uncovered, any family classification must re- 
main a tentative one. Both Tilly ard 1 and Lieftinck 2 have 
shown that the final court of appeal as to members of this 
family is the nymph. If we place this genus in the Syn- 
lestidse, using Tillyard ’s divisions (op. cit .), it runs out to 
the subfamily Synlestinse. This would bring the genus 
between the African Chlorolestes and the Australian Syn- 
lestes. The evidence of the penes and the venation seems 
to bear this out. If this genus is, as it appears to be, 
closest to Chlorolestes, this would mark another appear- 
ance of a new genus in the Neotropics whose closest ally 
is an African genus. 3 In both genera the types were cap- 
tured at high altitudes. 
Phylolestes, new genus 
Wings long and narrow, about seven times as long as 
wide. Petiolation ends well before the level of the quad- 
rangle in both wings. In the fore wings Ac 4 is well distad 
of the level of petiolation and is opposite the midpoint 
between the two antenodals. In the hind wings Ac is 
* Published with a grant from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 
Harvard College. 
1 Tillyard & Fraser, Aust. Zool. 9(2), pp. 15-30, Nov. 1938. 
2 Lieftinck, Treubia 17, pp. 45-61, March 1939. 
s Needham, J. G., Amer. Mus. Novitat. No. 1081, July 17, 1940. 
4 Venational terms used in this paper are those of Tillyard and Fraser 
{op. cit.) except that Discoidal cell of Tillyard = Quadrangle. 
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