


















NEUROPTERA. 
$< —_—. 
LIBELLULA CLAV AT & 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Mouth furnifhed with more than two jaws. Antenne like a briftle or hair, very fhort. Tail of the male 
armed with a pair of forceps. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Abdomen clubbed at the end, gibbous or thick at the bafe. Body variegated with green, and deep brown 
ftripes. 
ArsHNA CLAVATA: abdomine clavato bafi gibbo, corpore fufco viridique variegato. Fab. Spec. Inf. 1. 
p. 526, 4.—Ent, Sy. 2. 385, 4. 

This infec is defcribed by Fabricius, and in conformity with his new fyftem, is termed Aefhna cla- 
vatac, We reject his generic definition, becaufe it clearly belongs to the Linnzan Libellule. Libellula 
clavata muft be placed with the European L. grandis and forcipata.—lIt is fcarce, and has never been 
figured before. 


LIBELLULA INDICA. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Wings yellow, barred with brown, changeable to bright purple. Apex of the anterior pair white. Pof- 
terior pair blue at the bafe. 
LIBELLULA 1NDICA: alis flavo fufcoque variis apice albis: pofticis macula bafeos cyanea. Fab. Ent. Sy/t. 
T..2; 376. g. 
Libellula variegata. Zinn. Sy. Libellula hiftrio. Mant. In/. 


Another {pecies of Libellulz, peculiar to India, and found in China, greatly refembles this infect: it 
is probably a variety of it. 
¢ Fabricius divides thefe two families of Linnzean Libellule into three diftin@& genera; the firft retains the Linnean name, 
the fecond and third are called Aefhna and Agrion. Their moft effential charaéters are taken from the form and fituation of 
the mouth, and therefore require a deep magnifier to determine them with accuracy. We have examined thofe parts in the 
greater number of the fpecies Fabricius has defcribed, and find his charaéters agree, except in one inftance; but, which alone 
proves the impraéticability of adopting the whole of his fyftem: he defcribes Libellula Chinenfis, and refers to the only figure 
that has been given of it, in one of the plates of Edwards’s Natural Hiftory of Birds, 1745. Had he ever feen and examined 
this rare fpecies, he muft have referred it to his genus Agrion, each of the lips being bifid, or two-cleft, as in Libellula virgo 
and puella,—the effential charaéteriftic of the genus Agrion; for the mouths of the Libellule of Fabricius differ altogether in 
ftru€ture, and are not notched in the flighteft degree, as Libellula clavata, ferruginea, 6 maculata, and the European f{pecies 
Libellula depreffa, will fufficiently illuftrate. 








