244 THE entomologist's record. 



ZoNosoMA LiNEARiA, from Ashforcl, showing an exaggeration of the 

 central line on the forewings, Mr. L. B, Prout. 



^liiEYIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



The Senses of Insects, by August Forel. [Translated by MacLeod 

 Yearsley, F.R.C.S., two plates, xvi + 324 pp., 10/6 net., Methuen & 

 Co.] — This is a volume we are most pleased to Avelcome. It contains 

 some of the more important portions of Dr. Forel's writings that are 

 not of a more or less systematic character, though in saying this 

 we are, perhaps, undervaluing his work on the habits, as distinct fronti 

 the intelligence, of insects. Dr. Forel's name is well-known to 

 English entomologists as a first authority on ants ; but those who 

 have made themselves familiar with his researches on their habits, the 

 psychology, and the senses of ants and other insects, are certainly few. 

 So far as this may be due to some of the papers not being too accessible, 

 or to their being in French or German, we shall now find our 

 difficulties in becoming familiar with them removed. 



Dr. Forel has been an Hon. Fellow of the Entomological Society 

 of London since 1894 ; so that it is not due to any want of apprecia- 

 tion of his scientific attainments that we know these dissertations so 

 little as we do. The subject of the volume appeals equally to the 

 comparative psychologist as to the entomologist. It is, however, 

 to the entomologist that we realise more clearly its value. Even 

 to mere collecting it adds efficiency, but to the students of the life- 

 histories and habits of insects, to possess some definite ideas about 

 the outlook on the world which insects have, whether in the region of 

 instinct or intelligence, or, more literally, exactly what knowledge of 

 their surroundings they derive from their senses, not only adds verj'^ 

 much to the interest of such researches, but permits the observer to 

 take such a point of view as to enable him to make his observations 

 much more effectively. 



The translation is excellent ; so far as we have detected it is quite 

 accurate, and it reads as though it had been originally written in 

 English. We observe in one place " reflexes " used for reflections, 

 a word that is archaic except in art and in physiology, where it has 

 special meanings. The translation is dedicated to Lord Avebury, 

 than whom is no greater authority on the senses of insects, and with 

 whom our author agrees on almost all occasions. 



As we must regard this as a translation, rather than an original work, 

 we need not discuss at length any of the real material of the book. 

 We may remark, however, that it covers in various directions some- 

 what different ground to that cultivated by Lord Avebury, and 

 enlarges the outlook we derive from his papers. Besides notes of 

 original observations and experiments, a large part of the volume 

 contains' discussions, criticisms, and comparisons of the experiments 

 and conclusions of other observers, and the errors of observation and 

 reasoning on them which not a few have fallen into are pointed out. 

 Except Lord Avebury there is no English author amongst these, and 

 we suspect that it is because English authors are scarce, because 

 references to more or less isolated English observations are not 

 infrequent. 



We hope that with Forel's writings thus easily accessible, there 

 will, in the future, be more English work in this field. 



