122 Mr. G. Newport on a new genus of Parasitic Insects. 



XIV. — On the Identification of the Parasitic Genus of Insects, 

 Anthophorabia. By George Newport, Esq., F.R.S. & L.S. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, London, July 1849. 



Mr. Westwood's letter, inserted in your July number, in reply 

 to my remarks on the identification of Anthophorabia, obliges me 

 to trouble you with some further remarks on this subject. 



I mentioned in my letter to you, that immediately after the 

 reading of my paper to the Linnsean Society, on the 20th of 

 March, "the good faith of my .statements (was) abruptly 

 questioned in some remarks addressed to the Society by Mr. 

 John Obadiah Westwood, ivho made it appear that my know- 

 ledge of the insect Anthophorabia must have been derived from 

 viva voce statements made by himself at a meeting of the Ento- 

 mological Society in July 1847" (Annals, vol. iii. p. 514). Mr. 

 Westwood now, after professing that he " has neither leisure nor 

 inclination to answer in detail," — which very probably he has 

 not, — says, "I again deny having expressed a single word of 

 doubt as to Mr. Newport having found the insects in question in 

 1832, or that / asserted that his knowledge of them was derived 

 from my communications." Now I beg to say, that whatever 

 may have been the precise words employed, Mr. Westwood most 

 certainly did express doubt, and did impress, and did endeavour 

 to impress on the minds of those who were present, that my first 

 knowledge of the insect I had described must have been derived 

 from his observations at the Entomological Society in July 1847 ; 

 and he asserted, in the most positive manner, that I was in the 

 Chair at the time. The printed Proceedings of the Society prove 

 that Mr. Spence was in the chair ! I may now further state, 

 that he succeeded, for the time, in injuring me in the good 

 opinion of many who were present at the Linnaean Society, as I 

 have since been assured by several gentlemen ; as his imputations 

 seemed to be supported by the fact — which he still dwells upon, 

 with what object others may decide (Annals, p. 39) — of my having 

 been present at the meeting of the Entomological Society when 

 he referred to an insect by the name of Melittobia Audouinii ; 

 although, to this very hour, I have never seen that insect or his 

 drawings of it. Further, I may mention that it was evidently 

 his object to question the accuracy of my statements in the paper 

 I read to the Linnaian Society which drew forth the spontaneous 

 evidence in my favour from Mr. Nash, as I have since been as- 

 sured by that gentleman, to whom I had shown drawings of my 

 insect in 1832. These identical drawings, which I made from 

 living specimens, and which I regard as some of the most care- 



