XXxii, '21] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 287 



If the statement on page 1 of "Insect Life" be correct, namely, that 

 the "old time bug-hunter" who cared to collect insects merely as gaud- 

 ily colored objects to be placed in a "pendant glass-topped case with 

 specimens arranged in bizarre patterns" has become "as extinct as 

 the Dodo," one naturally wonders why the great majority of insects 

 figured in this book were apparently chosen for their gaudy colors 

 rather than for their scientific interest. One likewise wonders why 

 about 94 per cent of the insects figured are restricted to the orders 

 Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, unless the often-made charge be true, 

 that the English entomologists are interested only in Lepidoptera and 

 Coleoptera at any rate, practically the only insects which Mr. Ealand 

 considers worthy of designating by their scientific names in his figures, 

 are the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, and this omission of the proper 

 designation of the insects figured is very irritating when one wishes to 

 know the name of some interesting form depicted, as is the case, for ex- 

 ample, with the phasmid shown in Plate vi, which was apparently chosen 

 as a typical representative of the group. The head of this phasmid, how- 

 ever, is certainly far from typical of the group, and one wonders what 

 this interesting form may be but the only information vouchsafed 

 concerning it is that it is a "stick insect." If Mr. Ealand considered 

 insects other than Lepidoptera and Coleoptera worth bothering with, 

 he surely would have at least selected a specimen with a head on it, 

 to illustrate the common damselfly shown in the upper right hand cor- 

 ner of Plate ii; and he would have taken the trouble to ascertain 

 whether Plate xv represents "Sialis sp." or a typical male Corydalis! 



On page 4 occurs the statement that "The text is arranged on 

 strictly scientific lines and with the greatest attention to accuracy, for 

 it is hoped that 'Insect Life' may appeal to teachers and students of 

 entomology" ; but it is hardly in keeping with the modern knowledge? 

 of the subject to place the Zoraptera (which are winged insects related 

 to the Psocida) among the Apterygota, or to group the Onychophora 

 with the Arthropoda. Furthermore, no one but Dr. Chapnnn con- 

 siders that the micropterygid Lepidoptera constitute a distinct order, 

 the "Zeugloptera," and every one who has studied the Apterygota knows 

 that the Machilidae are too different from the Campodeidae to be 

 grouped with them in the same order of insects, especially if we are to 

 have so minute a division of related forms as to place the microptery- 

 gids in a distinct order separated from the rest of the Lepidoptera! 



In introducing the term "Ephemcroptera" (which implies that the 

 wings of the Ephemerida are retained only for a day) Shipley was 

 evidently actuated by a desire for a uniform ending in the ternrnation 

 "ptera" for all of the orders of winged inserts; but Ealand has n"t 

 this justification for using the designation "Ephemeroptera" in his list 

 of orders, since he discards the properly-formed term Xeuroptera Jn 

 favor of "Planipennia," Hemiptera in favor of "Khynchota," etc., al- 



