Two palaearctic Ischnura and a Sympecma from northern China (Zygoptera, Coenagrionidae, Lestidae)

The desert areas of northern China have an impoverished aquatic fauna, which evidently also applies to Odonata. However, there is also still a dearth of information from these areas, and therefore a small collection (4 specimens), kindly put at my disposal by Mrs S u R o n g (Huhehot) is worth commenting upon. All four specimens were collected near Jilantai lake, at a locality named Linchang, in Arzhuoqi area, on 3-VII1-1984. Approximate coordinates for the site are 39°40’N, 106°30’E. It is described as situated in desert area (obviously the South of the Gobi desert), and seems to be noted for a man-made forest, planted there as a result of irrigation. The locality is part of the Huang (Yellow) river catchment. The specimens collected are: Ischnura evansi Morton: S. – This record is surprising, and an addition to the dragonfly fauna of China. The typical rather wavy hind border of the pronotum, flanking its moderately raised middle lip, and the rim of the catinai fork, which is not raised above the level of the laminae mesostigmales, are typically as, e.g. the figure shown by H.J. DUMONT (1991, Odanola of the Levant, Israel Acad. Sci Human., Jerusalem). This species is widespread from the Eastern Mediterranean to Kazakhstan-Tadjikistan (BORISOV, S.N., 1987, Fauna i ekologiya strekoz Tadzhikistana, Autoref. Kand. Biol. Nauk, Biol. Inst., USSR Acad. Sci., Novosibirsk; HARITONOV, A.Yu„ 1988, in: G.S. Zolotarenko, [Ed.] Taksonomiya zhivotnyh Sibili, pp. 32-46, Nauka, Novosibirsk), but an eastward extension as far as the upper Yellow R. was quite unexpected.