KK> TIIK CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



inherent factors." Our own field experience gained among the numerous 

 mountain ranges and intervening valleys of the Western States leads us to 

 fully agree with this belief in specific variation. Others may view all these 

 visible expressions of the influence of surroundings upon the organism as 

 "species," but in this case the analysis of each type by Dr. Blaisdell is so 

 close that the process of further "specific" division resolves itself into a 

 matter of changing the relative rank of his names. Where necessary, the 

 species are divided into named ''varieties," to which the author frequently 

 alludes as "races," but which might as properly be called subspecies ; 

 these varieties are often subdivided into "formaa," or "incipient races," to 

 which descriptive Latin names are given "as an aid in recording data and 

 as a compromise between unscientific lumping and splitting." 



The monograph proper occupies 524 octavo pages, and is illustrated 

 by 13 plates, eight of which deal with genitalia, one with general anatom- 

 ical structures, three with outlines of pronota and one with the early stages. 

 The table of contents enumerates 73 recognized species and 31 varieties 

 of Eleodes, besides three specific names representing types unknown to the 

 author. In Trogloderus we find two species, in Embaphion seven, with 

 one variety. The genus Eleorfimorpha. founded on E. bo/can, n. sp., is 

 described as new, as are also a number of species and varieties belonging 

 to the other genera. Unfortunately, neither the table of contents nor the 

 index give any clue as to which of the included names are new, and 

 recourse to the text is necessary to discover the author. This trouble 

 might have been obviated by the inclusion of a complete bibliographic and 

 synonymical list enumerating all the species, varieties and formae, which 

 would serve not only to indicate the novehies, but also as a convenient 

 guide to cabinet arrangement. 



A special feature of the work is the fullness of specific and varietal 

 descriptions. The genealogical diagrams given for each subgenus are 

 interesting. In the arrangement, a few inconsistencies have attracted our 

 attention, for instance, in the table of contents Eleodes arata is given as a 

 specific term, while in the text, page 187, it is cited as a synonym of 

 obscura, and on page 194 is described as a "forma" of variety sulcipennis. 

 Again, E. tetiuipes and E. Wickhami are indicated as specifically distinct 

 in the table of contents, and in the headings of the body of the work, but 

 in the description of the latter the remark is made (on page 299) that "at 

 most Wickhami can be only a race of tennipes" which would, by Dr. 

 Blaisdell's system, reduce the name Wickhami to varietal rank. On page 



