Indolestes obiri, J.A.L. Watson & M.S. Moulds, 1979, 1979

J. A. L. Watson & M. S. Moulds, 1979, New Species of Australian Lestidae (Odonata), Australian Journal of Entomology 18, pp. 143-155 : 151-152

Indolestes alleni (Tillyard) and Indolestes albicauda tindalei (Tillyard)

Types.— Lectotype ♂ of Austrolestes alleni Tillyard, 1913 : Queensland: Cairns , ix.1905, E. Allen ( BMNH, not seen) (cf. Kimmins 1970). Paralectotype ♂ of A. alleni : locality and collector as for lectotype. viii.1905 (ANIC). Lectotype ♂ of Austrolestes albicauda tindalei Tillyard, 1925 : Northern Territory: Groote Eylandt , no date, N. B. Tindale ( SAM, No. 120548 ) (cf. W atson 1969). Paralectotypes: three ♀♀, same data as lectotype (SAM).

Other material of I. alleni examined. — Northern Territory: two ♂♂, 12 °26 'S 132 °58 ' E, ponds 1 km S ofCahill’s Crossing, East Alligator River , 9.xi. 1972, J. A. L. Watson ; two ♀♀. 13°44 'S 130 °43 ' E, Daly River crossing environs, Butterfly Gorge , Tommies Creek , 13.vii. 1974,24. x. 1974, J. F. Hutchinson . Queensland: two ♂♂, two ♀♀, Horn Island, Torres Strait , 15.i. 1957, R. Dobson ; two ♂♂, four ♀♀, Yarrabah Mission , scrub west of Bucki Homestead Creek, 26. x. 1966, J. A. L. Watson ; one ♀, Bramston Beach, near Innisfail , 30.iv. 1967, D. H. Colless ; one ♀, Cardwell , 3.i. l957, R. Dobson .

Tillyard (1925) briefly described a “ race” tindalei of Austrolestes albicauda (McLachlan) from one male and three females collected on Groote Eylandt, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The race was characterised by its darker coloration, and by its pale bluish abdominal segment 10. Lieftinck (1951) pointed out that tindalei should be referred to “ Lestes alleni Tillyard rather than to the west New Guinean "L." albicauda [see also entry under “ alleni Tillyard ” in the lestid section ofKimmins (1970)1, and in 1960 placed alleni and tindalei as separate species in the subgenus Indolestes Fraser. W atson (1969,1974) grouped both under the name alleni .

The type series, now in SAM, is complex. The lectotype ♂ and one paralectotype ♀are I. alleni ; another p ara lectotype ♀is apparently I. obiri sp. n . (see below); and the third paralectotype ♀is Austrolestes insularis illyard. The lectotype ♂ of tindalei is discoloured and darkened, and the female of tindalei , which is paler, is much obscured by a layer of lepidopteran scales; she could not have been included in Tillyard’s comparisons. The dark colours o f the head and thorax ascribed to tindalei by Tillyard can therefore be attributed to the discoloration of the male. The dark superior appendages are matched by appendages o f males from Torres Strait and the N orthern Territory. Blue labrum and abdominal segment 10 occur in material from both Queensland and the N orthern Territory; these structures probably become blue with increasing age. The male appendages are similar to those of I. alleni figured by Lieftinck (1951).

Austrolestes albicauda tindalei Tillyard must therefore be regarded as a synonym of Indolestes alleni (Tillyard) , a species known from north-east Queensland, Cape York and the northern parts of the Northern Territory ( Watson 1974). The synonymy is as follows: