CLASSIFICATION OF CHINESE DRAGONFLIES OF THE FAMILY GOMPHIDAE(ODONATA).PART II

The original intent of this study was to report on gomphid dragonflies foundin Fukien province. It was later realized that this investigation would suffer ifknowledge of the systematic status of species previously described from Fukien aswell as from other parts of China and surrounding countries were not known. Thusthe scope of the present study has been extended to include all gomphid dragonfliesreported from China. Of the 101 species and subspecies recorded in this paper, in-cluding 25 new species, 76 species have been actually studied by the author. Nodoubt many more species are yet to be discovered in China. It has been mentioned by many authors that the present system of classificationof the family Gomphidae is very unsatisfactory. Characters used in classification,such as wing venation, anal appendages, genitalia, armatures of legs, etc., thoughreliable in certain groups, are too variable to be used in others. Other morphologicalstructures which are concealed and need special treatment in order to be revealedfor critical investigation have been little studied. Very little is known about thenymphs of this fiamily and, consequently, nymphal characters play only a secondaryrole in present systems of classification. Furthermore, the identification of the femalesis usually difficult and has been considered in some cases impossible. It is not un-common for taxonomists to be in doubt even as to which genus a female may belong.These considerations indicate the desirability of a careful taxonomic study of thisfamily. In a careful comparative study of Chinese species of gomphids I have foundthat all species could be identified with certainty, often by a combination of severalstructural characters, many of them previously unobserved. In addition to strengthen-ing the classification of gomphids through the discovery of new diagnostic characters,the author has evaluated those already in use through variational studies of someextensive series of specimens. On the basis of such studies a few changes of theconventional system of classification of the family Gomphidae have been made, as discussed below. Chinese species, whenever available, have been fully described andextensively illustrated with accurate drawings. It is hoped that this paper will providea firm foundation upon which further study of Chinese gomphids can be based. In the present paper the Chinese gomphids are grouped under three subfamilies,namely, Gomphinae, Hageninae and Ictinogomphinae. The first subfamily correspondsto the Gomphinae and Epigomphinae of most authors combined. This change seemsto be necessary because characters that have been used to separate the latter twogroups intergrade in the cases discussed in this paper. A historical review of workson Chinese Gomphidae is also included. A complete list of the 101 Chinese speciesis given, together with the Chinese localities of each species and the collections inwhich the types (holotype and allotype) are deposited. The present study will be published in a series of papers. The first part dealswith the genus Gomphus Leach, s.s. Some species previously included in this hetero-geneous genus Gomphus by Needham (1930) and others have been proved to besynonyms and others transferred to various genera. Thus, in the genus treated herethere are altogether 17 species among which 7 are described to be new to science.The remaining 10 known species are amicus, clathratus, corniger, cuneatus, endicotti,flavicornis, gideon,septimus, somnolens and torpens. Of these species, cuneatus,septimus and probably also amicus, definitely belong to the genus Gomphus as definedhere, while the systematic status of the other 7 species is still open to doubt. Types ofseveral species, if still in existence, have not becn studied. New species describedin this genus are gaudens, hainanensis. hesperius, pacatus, pacificus, perlaetusand szechuanicus.