THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 335 



order is the prime favorite among collectors. There are about 

 20,000 recognized forms in North America. To illustrate even a 

 quarter of them in colour is a task that no publisher would risk. 

 So manv are monocolorous that exact drawings of structural 

 characters would be needed in addition. The insects range in 

 size from two inches to one-fiftieth of an inch. It has remained 

 for the indefatigable W. S. Blatchley, formerly State Geologist 

 of Indiana, to write the only practical work in the country, — 

 The Beetles of Indiana. While it is confined to actual records 

 from the State it is a fairly good workable list for all the country 

 north of Florida and east of the Mississippi. It does not include 

 the weevils, but a book is shortly to be published by Leng and 

 Blatchley to cover this group of the Eastern United States and 

 Canada. Identification of beetles must depend on the highly 

 technical original descriptions and comparison with proved speci- 

 mens. Even the checklist of them, Henshaw's Checklist of the 

 Coleoptera, has been out of print for six years, and a successor 

 volume is painfully slow in coming. American beetle study is at 

 least fifty years behind Europe. The great work on classification 

 by Leconte and Horn was published in 1883, and went out of print, 

 a la Government publications generally, soon afterwards. It is 

 too highly technical to be read without a glossary and deep pre- 

 acquired knowledge of the subjer*^. 



Perhaps in the list of general works there might be included 

 the Glossary of Terms used in Entomology, by John B. Smith, 

 but this volume, while necessary to every advanced student or 

 worker, is not really needed by those who wish to read (even 

 exhaustively) the list of popular works quoted above. 



Out of this list of about twenty volum.es recommended as 

 of prime importance or interest, one can get a splendid education 

 by the possession of two, leaving the rest to be acquired at leisure, 

 if at all. One must be a general Manual of Entomology, the 

 other some volume devoted to the special field of one's choosing. 

 Moreover no books can be more fas'^inating than these to any 

 one who has love for the great All Out Doors. The more you have, 

 the more you read diligently, the more enjoyment life shall have 

 for you. 



