THE NYMPH OF 
WILLIAMSON I A LINTNERI (HAGEN) 
(ODONATA: CORDULIIDAE) 
By Harold B. White, III 1 and Rudolf A. Raff 2 
The genus Williamsonia (Davis 1913) is composed of two little- 
known species: lintneri (Hagen 1878) and fletcheri (Williamson 
1923). Both are rather similar with respect to their early flight 
season and their habitat preference. Williamsonia lintneri is recorded 
in the literature from only four northeastern states of the U.S.A. : 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey. William- 
sonia fletcheri has a larger and more northern distribution which in- 
cludes the states of Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Michigan, 
and four provinces of Canada: Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario, 
and Quebec. Of Williamsonia lintneri , Howe (1923) commented: 
“The dates, as will be seen, range from April 1 to June 4 (sic) and 
undoubtably the reason Williamsonia lintneri has been overlooked is 
because of its early flight season when collectors are not alive to the 
presence of Odonata in the field. ... I always find it a woodland 
species inhabiting the neighborhood of cold bogs and brook runs. . . . 
Its larva is unknown.” 
In his description of Williamsonia fletcheri, Williamson (1923) 
quoted similar comments from a letter of J. H. McDunnough, col- 
lector of the type specimens near Ottawa, Ontario. 
“ ‘This species is one of the earliest to occur in our locality and nearly 
all the specimens I took were more or less teneral and were taken in 
a small spruce grove 1 close to a sphagnum bog which contained several 
open pools of water, in which I presume the nymphs lived.’ ” 
Both Howe and Williamson were interested in obtaining a nymph 
of Williamsonia but neither succeeded. In the early 1930^ Dr. 
James G. Needham of Cornell University offered five dollars and 
a copy of his book (Needham and Heywood 1929) to anyone at 
Harvard University who could produce a nymph of Williamsonia , s 
Apparently the prospect of wading in cold bogs in the early spring 
Barnes Bryant Conant Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, 
Massachusetts 02138. 
2 Biology Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 
Massachusetts 02139. 
This story was related to us by Dr. Floyd Werner, University of Arizona, 
who was a graduate student at Harvard at the time of Dr. Needham’s 
offer. 
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