64 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Schwarz at Cayamas) so labeled are Forcipomyia propinquus. it 

 is safe to conclude that this last mentioned was the species 

 observed by Professor Baker. 



Doctor Lutz records two observations of Forcipomyia attacking 

 caterpillars. One was by Townsend, who took specimens sucking 

 a sphingid larva in Peru, the other by Barbiellini, who made a 

 similar observation at Sao Paulo, Brazil. 3 



A further record of Forcipomyia attacking caterpillars comes 

 from Prof. F. W. Urich and is published here for the first time. 

 The observation was made in October, 1911, during Professor 

 Urich's stay on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The species ob- 

 served is also closely related to F. propinquus and I propose to call 

 it Forcipomyia crudelis. 



These records of closely related species of Forcipomyia attack- 

 ing caterpillars would lead one to suppose that these flies feed 

 exclusively on lepidopterous larvae, and the writer was inclined to 

 adopt this view. However, among a number of specimens of Forci- 

 pomyia propinquus, taken by Mr. A. Busck in the island of Santo 

 Domingo, was a female bearing a label indicating that it had 

 inflicted a painful bite on the collector. Also, the writer, while 

 at Miami, Florida, took two females of F. erucicida, along with 

 other Geratopogoninse, on the flowers of an avocado (Perseasp.). 

 Thus there is a wide range of feeding habits indicated, which does 

 not, however, preclude decided food predilections on the part of 

 these insects. 



It may be further pointed out that Ceratopogonina3 have been 

 observed attacking adult insects. F. H. Gravely, in India, found 

 a specimen of Culicoides attacking an Anopheles mosquito, the 

 former having its proboscis so firmly fastened in the abdomen of 

 the mosquito that it remained attached when the catch was placed 

 in alcohol. 4 It must be pointed out that some species of Culi- 

 coides are very troublesome blood-suckers of man and of other 

 warm-blooded animals, so that Gravely was well justified in think- 

 ing that his Culicoides probably normally "sucks mammalian blood, 

 and was taking it second-hand from the mosquito." But more 

 recent observations, made by Major N. P. O'Gorman Lalor in 

 Lower Burma, show that these attacks of Ceratopogoninse upon 

 mosquitoes are far too frequent to be accounted for in this way. 

 In these observations three species of Anopheles were found to be 

 attacked. Caught specimens of Anopheles fuliginosus "have 

 been found infested to the extent of 6 per cent, and this probably 

 implies a much wider infestation of that species in nature." 5 



3 Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz, iv, p. 24, 1912. 



4 Mosquito sucked by a midge. Records Indian Mus., iv, p. 45, 1911. 



6 Note on a parasitic fly which infests malaria carrying Anopheles in 

 Lower Burma. Paludism (Simla), no. 5, pp. 42-43, 1912. 



