OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XVI, 1914 63 



fusion of two or more or the suppression of one or more elements. 

 Therefore, in order to correctly homologize and generalize, one 

 must have a comprehensive knowledge of the manifestation of the 

 primary elements as represented by characteristic examples of 

 all stages in all orders." 



CERATOPOGONIN^E SUCKING THE BLOOD OF CATERPILLARS 



BY FREDERICK KNAB, Bureau of Entomology. 



Under date of December 29, 1913, my friend Mr. C. A. Mosier 

 sent me from Florida some small Diptera with the information 

 that they were sucking the blood of a sphingid caterpillar which 

 was feeding on the foliage of the papaya. The flies were busily 

 sucking, while the caterpillar thrashed about and in that way 

 succeeded in dislodging some of its enemies. The caterpillar was 

 that of the well-known papaya sphinx, Erinnyis ello L. The 

 flies, strangely enough, were of two widely different species, one 

 of them a biting chironomid of the genus Forcipomyia, the other 

 a lauxaniid of the genus Pachycerina. The Forcipomyia, of 

 which fourteen females were sent, proves to be closely related to 

 the Antillean F. propinquus Will., but distinct and undescribed, and 

 I propose to call it Forcipomyia erucicida. Specimens collected 

 by Mrs. A. T. Slosson at Lake Worth and Biscay ne Bay, Florida, 

 stood in the national collection labeled "Culicoides eriophorus Will." 

 and included with them were specimens of Forcipomyia propinquus 

 from Cuba. I find it necessary to mention these erroneous de- 

 terminations, as they have found their way into the literature of 

 the present subject. 1 



Prof. C. F. Baker records a biting midge attacking the cater- 

 pillars of the geometrid moth Melanchroia geometroides (Walker) 

 in Cuba, swarming about them and killing large numbers of them. 2 

 The midges were determined by the late D. W. Coquillett as 

 "Ceratopogon eriophorus Will.," but it would seem that the speci- 

 mens were not preserved. As there are no true eriophorus in the 

 collection, and the Cuban specimens (collected by Mr. E. A. 



1 In this connection it should be noted that Williston's description of 

 F. eriophorus (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1896, p. 279) is of the female, and not 

 of the male as there stated. The figures of the tarsus and wing of F. pro- 

 pinquus (1. c., pi. 9, figs. 41, 41a) also are of the female, instead of the male. 



2 Remarkable habits of an important predaceous fly (Ceratopogon 

 eriophorus Will.). U. S. Dept. Agrie., Bur. Ent.. Bull. 67, pp. 117-118, 

 1907. 



