In his interesting article “On the History and the Preparatory Stages of Fenesica tarquinius” (Canadian Entomologist, xviii., pp. 141–153) Mr. Wm. H. Edwards makes some comments upon my article in Science of last April (30th), in which I announced the carnivorous habit of the larva of this species. He has been led to do so in part by the incorrect report in Entomologica Americana of the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington for January 6th last. In that report “Mr. C. L. Johnson” is said to have observed “a lepidopterous larva feeding on a species of Aphid,” but the report is incorrect both as to the fact and as to the name. Judge Lawrence C. Johnson, an old-time correspondent and for a while one of my assistants in Mississippi, was the correspondent intended, and his communication, which I was familiar with, particularly states that “he thought he saw the larva eating the plant-lice, but failed to convince himself of the fact.” Mr. Lugger, in the very report quoted by Mr. Edwards (Can. Ent., xviii., 142, lines 2 and 3) expressly states that “he had never actually seen them (Fenesica larvæ) feeding upon the Aphids,” and as he previously remarked that he had “made the same observations” as Mr. Johnson, the report in Entomologica Americana is inaccurate and contradictory on its face.
NOTES ON FENESICA TARQUINIUS, Fabr.