92 Journal New York Entomological Society. [^oi. xx. 



walk off as unconcernedly as if they had been educated especially 

 with a view to affording instructive entertainment to man in that 

 particular way." 



In Williston's Manual of North American Diptera, 2d edition, 

 1896, p. 109, there is a quotation from a letter written by Professor 

 Penafiel, referring to a species said by Williston to be E. hians. which 

 is used as food at Lake Tezcuco, an alkaline lake about a hundred 

 miles west of Mexico City. The quotation follows : 



" It is of the eggs of this insect that the greater part of what is 

 known as Ahuatle is composed and which is now used by the natives 

 who have preserved the customs of the ancient Aztecs. The eggs are 

 cleaned and ground into flour, and are prepared by mixing with hens' 

 eggs and fried with fat into small cakes. The larvse are also used 

 as food under the name of Puxi." 



Packard, in a footnote to his second paper on " Insects Inhabiting 

 Salt Water," quotes something similar from a book called " Anahuac," 

 by E. B. Taylor, published in London, in 1861. The quotation is as 

 follows: ''A favorite dish here (Tezcuco) consists of flies' eggs 

 (Corixa fcmorata and Notonecta nnifasciata, according to Menne- 

 ville and Vielet d'Aoust) fried. These eggs are deposited at the edge 

 of the lake, and the Indians fish them out, and sell them in the market 

 place. So large is the quantity of these eggs that at a spot where a 

 little stream deposits carbonate of lime, a peculiar kind of travertine 

 is forming which consists of masses of them imbedded in the cal- 

 careous deposit." Packard adds without specifying his authority, 

 " The flies which produce these eggs are called by the Mexicans 

 ' Axayacatl ' or ' water face.' The eggs are sold in the market, 

 pounded and cooked, and also in lumps an natnrcl, forming a sub- 

 stance like the roe of a fish. This is known by the characteristic name 

 of ' ahua-utli,' that is, ' water wheat.' " 



It seems that the Diptera and the Hemiptera are mingled together 

 in the quotations ; only an investigation by an entomologist at the lake 

 can clear up the confusion. Probably the ^gg state is not used in 

 either insect. 



There remains only a brief note to add about the identity of Pack- 

 ard's Ephydra calif ornica. After I learned that Clear Lake is a body 

 of fresh water, not salt as Packard supposed, I inquired about any 

 small bodies of alkaline water in the vicinity; in fact, Professor 



