152 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 6 



vent the proper consideration of extremely important subjects as well 

 as to assist in eliminating the irrelevant and comparatively unimportant. 

 The judicious summary and the general recognition of inevitable lim- 

 itations have done much to promote a free exchange of views and 

 have made our sessions correspondingly valuable for all who could 

 attend. 



The value of a figure or illustration may be somewhat accurately 

 gauged by its life — the period during which it is used in current pub- 

 lications. The earliest illustrations of insects in American works 

 were relatively crude. Riley, with his great facility for depicting 

 natural objects, established a distinctly higher grade forty years ago. 

 His work has given way in current prints largely to more detailed 

 figures or the more recent process illustrations with their pleasing 

 softness of outline. Illustrations, whether pencil, ink, photographic 

 or colored, which can not be bettered in their respective classes, are 

 valuable additions to literature and science. This is a standard we 

 advocate for artists and those responsible for their work. A few really 

 excellent figures are decidedly preferable. These are the kind which 

 will continue to live and be reproduced for half a century or more. 

 Let us, when drawing, painting or photographing, work for the good 

 of posterity as well as for immediate results. 



Reviews 



Some Scale Insects of Mississippi with notes on certain species from 

 Texas, by Glenn W. Herrick. Technical Bulletin No. 2, 

 Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station, Agricultural College, 

 Miss., 43 pages of text and XXXIII plates with index, 1911. 



This publication gives directions for collecting, preparing and mounting scale 

 insects. Then follows an alphabetical list of 48 species giving food plants and dis- 

 tribution. All but seven of the species listed occur in Mississippi and the others 

 were collected in Texas and Louisiana. Following the list and arranged in the same 

 order are descriptions of the scales of both sexes and of the pygidium of the female, 

 of each species. The illustrations do not appear with the descriptions but are placed 

 by themselves following the text. References to them appear in the descriptions 

 and a reference to the original description of each species is also given. The pygidial 

 characters of about 34 of the 48 species listed are shown on the plates, made from pen 

 drawings by the author. 



Tlais publication though bearing the date of February, 1911, was not distributed 

 until late in the year of 1912. 



This bulletin is certain to prove helpful to students of the family Coccidse, and 

 though the insects are not treated from an economic standpoint, the publication 

 should be in the library of every economic entomologist. 



W. E. B. 



