IQOl] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 203 



closely. Long before I looked for transformation, the cases 

 opened and there emerged — two flies ! My curious Lycaenid 

 larvae were only maggots of the dipterous genus Baccha, long 

 known as aphidivorous. Do you wonder that I set this blun- 

 der down as one of my successes ? Well, it was a discovery, 

 of its kind. I learned a lesson, too, from the experience ; and 

 is not a lesson, if thoroughly learned, a sort of success? 



But I found the genuine thing a little later — a real Lycaenid 

 caterpillar, though it was not feeding upon Aphidse. It was a 

 green, slug-like larva, looking silver}- or frosted, because of 

 the white, short bristles, which grew close together all ov^er it. 

 It was feeding on the leaves of the Trema, and continued to 

 feed and thrive in captivity until it came to the imago state 

 and became a fine male specimen of Thecla martialis Herr 

 Sch. This is a West Indian species, which I was so fortunate 

 as to add to our own lists a few years ago. As far as I know, 

 its life history has never been recorded. 

 ^To be continued.) 



Letters from Thomas Say to John F. Melshcimer, 

 I8J6-1825.— V, 



Philadelphia Novr d^^ 1817. 

 Dear Sir 



I sincerely thank you for the insects you sent me, I re- 

 ceived them in the best possible order, & many of them were 

 new to me, you are rich in the very interesting aquatic genera 

 — For all these I will endeavour to make you some return by & 

 by. In the mean time I would send you the first number of 

 the American Entomology^ if I could find any conveyance for it; 

 sending it through the Post-office will be unnecessarly expen- 

 sive, perhaps you can advise a better mode — It contains six 

 coll'.' plaates, besides an engraved title page & vignette, with 

 about two sheets of letter press ; the arrangement of the mat- 

 ter is upon the plan of Donovan' s Brittish Insects I will have 



' The generally ascribed dates of publication of the American Entonio- 

 los^y is 1824-' 28. The work appeared in numbers, and, as is seen, the first 

 appeared in 1817. In the preceding letter, dated April 27, 1817, Say 

 speaks of the first number as not having been issued ; inferentially it 

 appeared between that date and that of the present letter. — W. J. F. 



