66 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



BOOK REVIEW. 



The Acridiid^ of Minnesota. By M. P. Somes, University of 



Minnesota, Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin 141. 



University Farm, July 1914. 100 pp., 4 pis. (3 coloured). 



Although a descriptive account of the Orthoptera of Minnesota 



has already been published* the present bulletin on the family 



Acridiidse or short-horned grasshoppers will be found to contain 



much additional information on the distribution, habitats and 



life-histories of the species described in the earlier work, as well 



as descriptive notes on 16 species not included in the latter. It 



also contains keys for the identification of the subfamilies, genera 



and species. 



No fewer than 78 species are listed, a number which exceeds 

 the Ontario list by 80 species; but this is not surprising in view of 

 the geographical position of the state and its relations to the 

 Mississippi Valley and to Lake Superior. Minnesota lies on the 

 borderland between the prairies and the eastern forest region, so 

 that the rich prairie fauna, which is an almost negligible quantity 

 in Ontario, is abundantly represented here, while Carolinian species 

 enter by the Mississippi Valley and Canadian species find their way 

 into the northern counties, the proximity of Lake Superior probably 

 favouring the boreal element in the fauna of this section. 



On account of these relations it is to be regretted that the 

 author has not given us some account of the topography of Minne- 

 sota from the standpoint of locust distribution, particularly as 

 this phase of the subject was also ignored in Lugger's report. 



Many interesting notes are given on the manner of flight, 

 nabits of oviposition, etc., of the various species, one of the most 

 noteworthy being the observation of a female of Melanoplus 

 blatchleyi in the act of drilling a hole in a piece of dead wood after 

 the manner of Chloealtis conspersa, a habit unusual among the 

 Melanopli. 



The figures on the plates are all from original drawings, mostly 

 in colour and, with a few exceptions, are fairly accurate and very 

 attractive in appearance. The figure oi Arphia sidphurea, however, 



*Liigger, Otto. The Orthoptera of Minnesota. Third Am. Rept. of the 

 Entomologist of the State Experiment Station of the University of Minnesota, 

 1897. 



