XXXI, '20] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 2O7 



In its first form Dr. Howe's " Manual of the Odonata of New England " 

 appears in six parts totaling one hundred and two pages and having over 

 three hundred illustrations. The outstanding excellencies are the follow- 

 ing: 



1. It is the first manual of the Odonata in the United States that covers 

 more than a single state. 



2. It is the first manual of Odonata of any extensive region that seriously 

 attempts to give adequate figures of all the species listed. 



3. It has an illustrated key, such as some popular ornithologies have 

 found useful, which illustrates the characters that it uses, where they are 

 used. This brings the key directly down to the reader as nothing else 

 does and next to the figures of specific characters, this is the most valu- 

 able feature of the work. 



Under each genus Dr. Howe gives a table showing the New England 

 States from which each species has been recorded. The reviewer wishes 

 to suggest that such a table can have little value as these are political 

 regions while it is the physiographic and climatic areas that control dis- 

 tribution. The same amount of space devoted to remarks on the faunas 

 represented in New England and their distribution would at least have 

 been more interesting reading. 



This distributional problem is one of peculiar interest in New England 

 as it lies where four fairly definite faunas overlap. The one hundred and 

 fifty-six species listed by Dr. Howe can be divided roughly among these 

 faunas about as follows: 



1. Canadian fauna, forty-four species. These genera are holarctic 

 in distribution and probably Eurasian in origin perhaps having spread 

 into North America during recent interglacial epochs. This was prob- 

 ably the first fauna to appear in New England after the retreat of the ice 

 and is characterized by Lestes 4 spp., Aeschna 10 spp., Somatochlora 10 

 spp., Leucorhinia 5 spp., and Sympetrum 5 spp. It occupies the hilly 

 back bone of the region. 1 



2. Transition fauna, twenty-five species. These genera occupy rough 

 country and rapid gravelly streams of boggy land. These are charac- 

 teristic of the central Appalachian System and among them are many 

 rare and odd species as this is the oldest North American fauna, possibly 

 a relic of pre-Pliocene times, whose species manage to hang on by living 

 in special habitats that as yet are not seriously invaded by more modern 

 faunas. In it are Chromagrion, Tachopteryx, Cordulegaster, 2 spp., Ophio- 

 gomphus, 5 spp., Lanthus, 2 spp., Gomphaeschna, Didymops, Wi/lianisonia, 

 Helocordulia and Dorocordulia. 



'This and the following statements of distribution and habitat are ob- 

 viously of necessity very broad. Any local fauna will give various ap- 

 parent exceptions. 



