L. sellatus was described by Hagen in SELYS (1862, Bull. Acad. r. Belg. (II) 13: 288-338) from a small series collected by Ehrenberg during his journey to Syria and Egypt, deposited in the ZMHB and Hagen collections. He noticed that the species somewhat resembles L. virens (Charp., 1825), although lacking the metallic green shine. Er. SCHMIDT (1939, SBer. Akad. Wiss. Wien [I] 147(5/10] [1938]: 135-150) reexamined the types and figured the male cerci (paraprocts wanting) and the left thoracic colour pattern. In the Berlin collection he discovered only I 6, 1 9 and a specimen without abdomen from Syria and concluded that L. sellatus should be placed as a distinct species close to L. virens, differing from it by an unusually broad humeral suture of the synthorax, combined with extensive black lateral markings, the whole body lacking any metallic shine. W. SCHNEIDER (1986. Systematik und Zoogeographie der Odonata der Levante [etc.], Diss. Univ. Mainz) placed L. sellalus into the synonymy of L. virens. Also H.J. DUMONT (1991, Odonata of the Levant, Israel Acad. Sci., Jerusalem) came to the conclusion: ”... it is quite possible that L. sellalus is nothing more but a form of L. virens, combining the characters of the two described subspecies [virens and vestalis] in an extreme form.” In May, 1993, the author had the opportunity to examine the types of L. sellatus in the ZMHB collection, and to designate the three type specimens as follows: — I 6 lectotype from Syria; labelled "Syria Ehrbg.” [yellow], ’’Lestes sellatus, Syria. Ehrenberg”, ”L. sellata Hag.”, ”2815” and ’’Typus” [red]. — 1 9 paralectotype from Syria; labelled "Typus” [red]. Segm. 7'A to 10 wanting. — 1 $ paralectotype from Egypt; labelled ”L. sellata 9” and ’’Aegypt. Ehrbg.” [blue], Segm. 6 to 10 wanting.