THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 255 



BOOK NOTICE. 

 A Year of Costa Rican Natural History, by Amelia Smith Calvert, 

 Sometime Fellow in Biology, Bryn Mawr College, and Philip 

 Powell Calvert, Professor of Zoology, University of Pennsyl- 

 \'ania. The Macmillan Co., New York; The Macmillan Co. 

 of Canada, Toronto Feb, 1917. xiX + 577 pp., with maps and 

 numerous illustrations from photographs, including coloured 

 frontispiece. Price S3. 00. 

 The single year (May 1, 1909 to May 10, 1910) spent by 

 Professor and Mrs. Calvert in Costa Rica was a full one indeed, 

 to judge by this interesting chronicle of their experiences in that 

 remarkable land. To have gathered, in a single year, the vast 

 cjuantity of information contained within its pages must have de- 

 manded great concentration of effort, both mental and physical. 

 This information concerns not only the animals and plants of the 

 country, in which the authors were chiefly interested, but also 

 the climate and topography, the life and customs of the people, 

 conditions and methods of travel, and many other matters of in- 

 terest to the visitor. 



As the main object of the trip was the study of the dragonflies 

 of the country, the references to these insects are proportionately 

 numerous, and among the more interesting discoveries in this field 

 were the finding and rearing of the larvae of Mecistogaster modestus, 

 which breeds in the water between the leaves of epiphytic brome- 

 liads (plants belonging to the Bromeliacese or Pine-apple family), 

 the lar\'a of Cora, which possesses lateral abdominal gills, 

 recalling those of the mayflies and Sialids; and the habits of certain 

 waterfall dwellers belonging to the genera Thaumatoneura and 

 Argia. These have already been described at length by Dr. 

 Calvert in a series of papers published in the Entomological News. 

 A great many other matters of interest to entomologists were 

 brought to light, not only concerning dragonflies but numerous 

 other groups of insects, e. g., observations on the swarming and 

 migratory flights of butterflies and day-flying moths, the habits 

 of leaf-cutting ants and the curious relationship between the ants 

 found upon the Bull's Horn Thorn and their host tree, interesting 

 cases of apparent mimicry and protective coloration, curious and 

 striking insects of various kinds, such as the huge horn-bearing 

 Scarabseidae, {Dynastes, Megaceros, etc.), strange lepidopterous 



