Male of Calopteryx splendens tschaldirica . Kura river southwest Khashu - ri, Georgia (29-vi-2014; photograph by Stefan Kohl) 

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... the middle and upper course of the Kura river and its tributaries within the region of Samtkhe-Javakheti and bordering areas to the Shida-Kartli re- gion, we encountered a distinctly small and dainty form of C. splendens with comparatively narrow wings. Males had broadly hyaline wing apices and small rather diffuse blue spots not reaching the wing hind margin ( Fig. 4). While the wing spots faded out distally, their proximate border was distinc- tively clear cut and straight. The matt blue wing spots strongly varied in size and markedness and several males appeared to have almost entirely hyaline wings with traces of a blue tinge only. The length of the male’s abdomen was roughly a centimetre shorter than in average males of ssp. intermedia from the adjacent capital area (31 mm; n = 8, vs 40 mm in ssp. intermedia , n = 11). These males perfectly matched both the description and the distribution of ssp. tschaldirica Bartenev, 1909, described from specimens collected in 1909 within the former Kars Oblast ( Карсская область ) of the Russian Empire, on today’s Turkish territory (Ardahan and Kars provinces) at the source of the Kura river around Tschildir lake (” Чилдыр ”; Turk. Çıldır Gölü) (Bar- tenev 1909). We therefore assign this form to ssp . tschaldirica , which is in perfect accordance with descriptions and illustrations given by Dumont et al. (1987), who revealed the true nature and status of this taxon that had been unclear for decades. This was probably due to individual unjustified changes of its taxonomical status by Bartenev himself, who in 1912 treated it as a ssp. of the Selysian taurica (Bartenev 1912: 80; cf. Selys 1853). As stated by Dumont et al. (1987), available data suggest that ssp. tschaldiri ca is an altitudinal form centred on the volcanic plateau of the Ar- menian highland from where it penetrates into the lower regions towards the East along the course of the Kura, being replaced by ssp . intermedia roughly west of Mzcheta. The western limit of its Georgian range remains rather unclear; however, ssp. tschaldirica obviously does not enter deeply into Adjaria and the Colchic lowland, where it is largely replaced by ssp. mingrelica. What regards alleged ssp. tschaldirica reported from northeast of Batumi by Bartenev (1930a), see Dumont et al. (1987). Calopteryx virgo has been first mentioned from today’s Georgian territory by Eichwald (1837) in a report on his expedition across the Colchic low- land. He described the species as being abundant at brooks in forests of Mingrelia (sub Agrion colchicum ). Only a short time later C. virgo was re- peatedly reported from Mingrelia by Selys (1868), who stated that it cor- responded to Brullé’s taxon festiva . According to our data, Georgian C. virgo indeed generally correspond to ssp. festiva in all characters described by Brullé (1832), with all blackish wings in males and conspicuously dark winged females (Bartenev 1912b). The species appeared to be scarce and localised in Georgia and to be strictly confined to the lowlands in smaller abundances only. In adjacent Azerbaijan it seems to be very rare (Skvort sov & Snegovaya 2014) and it has never been recorded in Armenia so far (Tailly et al. 2004; Ananian & Tailly 2013). At loc. 60 we discovered a small population of C. virgo festiva with con- spicuously different looking females, which had brightened, entirely trans- lucent fore wings and two third translucent hind wings with contrasting dark tips and white pseudopterostigmata (Fig. 5). In single females the con- trast of this colour pattern was even more pronounced than shown on the photo and the basal borders of the dark tips were sharper delimited. These females were comparatively large (up to 54 mm total length) and, they strik- ingly resembled females of C. haemorrhoidalis , a western Mediterranean endemic. However, we also observed single typical coloured females flying syntopically with this form at loc. 60. In his publication on dragonflies of the former Kuban oblast, Bartenev (1910: 35) introduced the name »var. ♀ feminalis nov.« based on females collected at Goryachy Klyuch ( Горячий Ключ ) on the nortwestern foot- hills of the Caucasus range, north of Sochi, Russia. We here give the original quotation of the Latin description: »alae anteriores pelucentes concolores, posteriores triente apicali fasciâ introrsum rectilineatim atque argute termi- natâ adumbratae« [forewings unicolour translucent, the outer third of the hind wings with a straight-lined and clearly confined tinted band]. Barte- nev’s description thus perfectly matched our haemorrhoidalis -like Georgian females. Moreover, in the introduction Bartenev decidedly stated the simi- larity of his newly described female colour form of C. virgo to C. haemor rhoidalis females. We are therefore sure that our females correspond to Bar- tenev’s feminalis type females he collected some 300 km north of our site, within the same climatic and natural unit along the humid subtropical east- ern shore of the Black Sea. The nomenclatural status of feminalis can be derived from the fact that Bartenev introduced the name in combination with the term »var. ♀ nov..«. He therefore clearly intended to denote a new, female-linked variety defined upon the female only. Such third variety name in binominal taxa should be regarded as subspecific if ...