236 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



agricultural high schools and of physicians, fruit inspectors, the 

 modern farmer, the nature-lover, or anyone who is concerned with 

 the practical identification of insects." It begins with a conspectus 

 of the higher groups of insects down to the families, following 

 which is a key to the orders, dealing with the earlier as well as 

 the adult stages. The remainder of the text is occupied by short 

 diagnoses of each order, followed in each case by dichotomous 

 keys to the suborders, superfamilies and families. A few typical 

 genera are mentioned in connection with each family, and when 

 these contain well-known species of economic importance, both the 

 scientific and common names of such species are given. 



The book is copiously illustrated by 427 simple but e>:cellent 

 figures, showing the general appearance of members of typical 

 genera or characters of taxonomic value. 



The classification into orders and the grouping of these into 

 subclasses and classes is essentially that of Handlirsch*, who recog- 

 nizes five classes and divides one of these, the Pterygogenea, into 

 11 subclasses and 30 orders, there being 37 orders altogether. 

 Only the orders and lower groups, however, are characterized in 

 the keys. This system is undoubtedly based upon a much broader 

 and more thorough consideration of all available data on the 

 subject than any other hitherto proposed, and probably expresses 

 the true relationships of the main groups of insects with corre- 

 spondingly greater accuracy, and yet we cannot but think that the 

 wisdom of following it in a manual such as this is open to question, 

 at least in so far as its usefulness to the average teacher, or the 

 physician or nature-lover is concerned, for it is far more complex 

 than any of the older systems, and can only be appreciated by the 

 most advanced sttidents. For some reason, not apparent to the 

 reviewer, the most generalized groups, usually known as the 

 Apterygota or Thysannra and CollemhoJa, but divided by 

 Handlirsch into four classes, are placed at the end of the series, 

 although the general sequence of groups is an ascending one. 



The book also contains a glossary of special terms, an index 

 to genera and higher groups, and an index to common names. 

 It should certainly prove a most useful addition to any entomo- 



logical or zoological library. 



■*Die fossilen Insekten und diePhylogeniederrezenten Formen. Leipzig 1908. 



Mailed July Kith, 191.5 



