January, 1884.]

£67

169

ANAX ZONGIPXS*

BY PROP. H. A. HAGEN.

Spending my summer vacation at "Woodsholl, on the south-easterncoast of Massachusetts , opposite Martha’s Vineyard Island, I saw onthe top of a hill a number of JPapilio Asterias, eagerly hunted by alarge AEselinide, which I believed to be probably Anax Junius.Finally a Papilio was caught by the hunter, which directly settled ona shrub to devour its prey. Both were very soon in my net; and, tomy surprise, I found a brick-red Anax, unknown to me ; it had the P.Asterias still between its legs, but had cut off the head of it. Onlythe following day, August 27th, 1875, when I caught, with difficulty,another male, and finally a female, did I become aware that I hadbefore me the long-sought-for A. longipes. The species was by nomeans rare, but very wild, in the woods, mostly swinging around thetops of the trees, and on the hill, disappearing with the slightestwind. I was, therefore, not able to get more specimens. [Returninghome, I found, to my surprise, another female, collected March 3rd, inHannover, Florida, and a third female, caught in Florida , by Mr. R.Thaxter, together with a P. Asterias, beheaded just as in my obser-vation. Mv friend TThler wrote to me that he had also collected atthe same time A. longipes, near Baltimore . Probably it is not wellknown that, just the south-eastern shore of Massachusetts and theislands Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, all subjected to the influenceof the gulf-stream, possess a number of insects not to be found in theintermediate country down to Florida or Georgia, as Tramea abdonii-nalis, Ascalaphus, and others.

My notes about the colours of the living A. longipes are asfollows :■—Head pale green, eyes dark reddish-brown, J, bluish $ ; <J,thorax green ; legs as described in my Synopsis ; abdominal segments1 and 2 green; 1, with a basal brownish spot; 2, with transversalmedian stripe, a darker ante-apical spot, and two reddish-greenspots (two blue ones on the female) ; abdomen brick-red, 3 to 5 witha brown, triangular, apical spot, less marked on 6 ; a triangular, basal,brown spot on 4 and 5 : the following segments and appendages red:$ , abdomen brown, segments 3 to 9 with two apical blue spots ; 3 to7 with two blue basal spots ; 4 to 6 with two intermediate blue spots ;appendages light brown.

I have several times written about longipes. In my description(Synops. N. A. Neur., p. 118), the word “surface” for the abdomen,

cf, ante , p. 129.

P