THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 239 



caterpillars seek out their hibernacula in the fall, remain in that state 

 during winter, and change to chrysalids with the first warm weather in 

 spring. Caterpillars have been found yet imbedded in the winter's frost 

 In one instance I found one, in early spring, travelling about as if looking 

 for a place to transform ; it produced a Diffusa. They have never been 

 looked for here in the reeds ; as they grow almost entirely in the water, 

 one would require the aid of a boat to make the investigation. When 

 surveying the situation where I have found the Arzamas, I have often 

 wondered how the caterpillars got from the reeds to the land. The 

 shallow part of our marsh where they might easily get ashore is invariably 

 burned over in early spring by pike shooters for their own convenience. 



J. Alston Moffat, Hamilton. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



An Introduction to Entomology, by Professor J. H. Comstock, 

 Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Published by the Author. Part I 

 — pp. 234, 8 vo. (Price $2.00). 



The autumn of 1888 is certainly a notable one in the annals of North 

 American Entomology, owing to the publication of so many important 

 works. Last month we drew attention to Dr. Packard's excellent 

 " Entomology for Beginners," and the issue of the first part of Mr. 

 Scudder's grand work on the Butterflies of the Eastern States and Canada. 

 We have now before us the first portion of another admirable work, 

 which is intended to serve as a text-book for students, and to enable 

 them " to acquire a thorough knowledge of the elementary principles of 

 Entomology, and to classify insects by means of analytical keys similar to 

 those used in Botany." The first two chapters of the book treat of the 

 characters and metamorphoses, and the anatomy of insects ; the next 

 discusses the Orders of the Hexapoda, to which the author very properly 

 limits insects. In this chapter he gives his reasons for [adopting ten 

 orders, the number being made up of the seven generally accepted orders 

 and the Thysanura, Pseudoneuroptera and Physopoda ; in adhering so 

 closely to the old classification, he states that he has been greatly influenced 

 by a desire to make his book as simple as possible, and " by the belief 

 that an elementary text-book should follow rather than lead in matters of 

 this kind," in which opinion we thoroughly concur. The remainder of 



