222 
Psyche 
[December 
WILLIAMSONIA LINTNERI (HAGEN), ITS HISTORY 
AND DISTRIBUTION 
By R. Heber Howe, Jr. 
Belmont, Mass. 
A male of this unique species was supposedly figured, 
without name or description, in 1854 (Emmons, DeKay’s Agric. 
N. Y. 5: PI. 15.f.l) though the plate is inaccurate as to wing 
venation (triangle with cross vein) pattern of abdominal mark- 
ings, and the superior abdominal appendages are shown as 
distinctly furcate. I feel confident that it was not intended for 
a figure of this insect. The species was first thought definitely 
referred to, but not described, by Hagen in 1867 (Stett. ent. Zeit. 
28:91) under the title of Diplax vacua, — evidently based on 
two females collected in 1860, one at Lake Winnipeg and one 
from the Saskatchewan river (in litt. Hagen) by Robert Kellicott. 
Later in 1878 (Bull. Acad. Belg. (2) 45:187) Hagen described 
what he thought to be the same species from material collected 
at Center, (now Earner) N. Y., naming the insect Cordulia 
lintneri. The type, a male (No. 2840) was taken on May 27 
(1874?), and a female (No. 2839) paratype on May 21 (1874?) 
by Dr. J. A. Lintner. In a later paper by Hagen (Psyche 5: 
371-373. 1890) he again fully described the species, and figured 
(PI. 1. fs. 10-17) both sexes, recording at the same time the two 
females taken by Kellicott which he had formerly named Diplax 
vacua, but here calls Libellula vacua and which he considered 
identical. He made however a significant remark that 
‘Tt is very interesting that this apparently arctic species is 
found in eastern New York.” In this article Hagen refers to 
four males and four females as taken by Dr. Lintner, but Dr. 
E. P. Felt writes me under date of October 17, 1922 that ‘‘Know- 
ing what I do of Doctor Lintner, I doubt very much if he ever 
had four males and four females of this species, though I am 
unable to explain the significance of the numeral 4 preceding 
the sign for the male. I am inclined to think it must be a sub- 
number, though apparently Hagen published his record and 
