Mecistogaster linearis (Fabricius, 1776) Selys (1860: 16, 1886: 23); Kirby (1890: 150); Kennedy (1919: 112); Fraser (1946: 462); Calvert (1948: 55); Davies & Tobin (1984: 54); Tsuda (1991: 57); Hedström & Sahlén (2001: 1045); Lencioni (2017: 177); Heckman (2008: 210); Garrison et al. (2010: 391); Ingley et al. (2012: 643); Dijkstra et al. (2014: 76); De Marmels (2016: 8). Mecistogaster fililigera Rambur, 1842 Syn. Mecistogaster flavistigma Rambur, 1842 Syn. Diagnosis. Very large species (♁ HW 49-60, abdomen 100-125). Color black, ventrally pale yellow. Face dark brown. Pterothorax with two humeral yellow stripes originating on opposite sides, the anterior reaching the anterior border but not the sinus, the posterior reaching the sinus but not the anterior border. Venter surrounded by black with a median black stripe. Hindwing with anterior border not angulated at level of pseudostigma. Pseudostigma in mature specimen black, extending to the cell row below it. S10 slightly elevated and excavated. Cercus in dorsal view spatulated, in lateral view straight. Remarks. The diagnosis above was based in Selys (1860, 1886) according to whom the male specimens agree with the specimen in the collection of Banks in the British Museum, believed to be labeled by Fabricius. According to Calvert (1948) this male is the lectotype of M. linearis. Also, Bridges (1994) regards this specimen as the type of Fabricius M. linearis. However, M. linearis is not mentioned in the list of type specimens of the British Museum published by Kimmins (1970). Mecistogaster linearis has a very large distribution that according to Tsuda (1991) comprises Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. In Brazil it comprises Amazonian States, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The record in São Paulo (Jacareí) was obtained by Lencioni (2017) and the record for Rio de Janeiro was obtained by Janira Costa (in litt) and both are represented in the map (Fig. 2).

Published as part of Soldati Lacerda, Déborah S. & Monteiro Machado, Angelo B., 2019, The damselfly genus Mecistogaster (Odonata: Pseudostigmatidae) from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest with a description of three new species and a neotype designation for M. amalia (Burmeister, 1839), pp. 207-228 in Zootaxa 4668 (2) on pages 219-220, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4668.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/3449229