Vol. XXI] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 237 



aphids." There is a chapter on the veins in the wings of insects x and 

 considerable space is devoted to the life cycle and transformations of 

 insects. Under adjustment of organisms to environment, insects are 

 also treated. This work will appeal to the student of entomology, who 

 also wishes to have a general review of the lives and activities of ani- 

 mals other than insects, and plants. Prof. Needham being an ento- 

 mologist as well as a general biologist has introduced more on insects 

 than is usually found in such works. 



ANTS, THEIR STRUCTURE, DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR, by William Mor- 

 ton Wheeler, Ph. D., Professor of Economic Entomology, Har- 

 vard University; Honorary Curator Social Insects, American 

 Museum of Natural History. New York, Columbia University 

 Press, 1910. Price, $5.00. The author of the work says : 

 "If an excuse was required for its publication, one might be found 

 in the fact that for many years no comprehensive treatise on the ants 

 has appeared in the English language." The extent of the literature 

 of Entomology, possibly nearly fifty per cent, of Zoological literature, 

 and its scattered and often fragmentary character militate against the 

 study of the subject. When a master gives us not only a digest of this 

 but also the benefit of his own studies and original observations we 

 should indeed be grateful. 



The subject is covered in the most thorough manner and could prob- 

 ably not be more complete without going into detail beyond the limits 

 of the work. There are thirty chapters and valuable appendices. The 

 chapters are divided into a number of parts, each taking up some special 

 subject. Some idea of the contents may be obtained from the chapter 

 headings as follows. As dominant insects ; the external structure ; the 

 internal structure ; the development ; polymorphism ; the history of 

 myrmecology and the classification; the distribution; fossil ants; gen- 

 eral habits ; nests ; ponerine ants ; driver and legionary ants ; harvest- 

 ing ants ; the relations of ants to vascular plants ; fungus growing 

 ants ; the relations to plant-lice, scale-insects tree-hoppers and cater- 

 pillars ; honey ants ; persecuted and tolerated guests ; true guests, ecto, 

 and entoparasites ; compound nests ; temporary social parasites ; san- 

 guinary ants, or faculative slave-makers; amazons, or obligatory slave- 

 makers ; the degenerative slave-makers ; the degenerative slave-makers 

 and permanent social parasites; the sensations of ants; the instinctive 

 behavior of ants ; the plastic behavior. The appendices take up the 

 following subjects: Methods of collecting, mounting and studying 

 ants; key to the subfamilies, genera and subgenera of the North Ameri- 



