Current Literature 531 



Indian Forest Insects of Economic Importance ; Coleoptera. 

 By E. P. Stebbing. Eyre and Spottiswoode, Ltd. London. 1914. 

 Pp. 648. Price 15s. 



It may come to many as a surprise to see a volume of 648 pages 

 on a single order of Indian forest insects, as we are accustomed 

 to think of the vast insect fauna of India as too little known to 

 render possible the preparation of such a work, and while Prof. 

 Stebbing's book, as the author modestly remarks, "has no pre- 

 tensions to be more than a pioneer endeavoring to indicate in 

 some small degree the lines upon which the further study of 

 the subject should proceed," there is nevertheless a vast amount 

 of information contained within it on the life histories and 

 economic relations of the beetles that are more or less destructive 

 to Indian forests. 



Some idea of the vastness of the subject may be gained from 

 the author's statement, quoted from J. S. Gamble {Manual of 

 Indian Timbers) that "the Indian forests contain some 5,000 

 different species of trees, shrubs, climbers and bamboos" ; for 

 here, as elsewhere, the number of species of insects corresponds 

 more or less closely with that of the plants on which they feed. 



The material for the present work was chiefly gathered by the 

 author since 1898 while acting in the capacity of Imperial Forest 

 Zoologist and Member of the Forest Research Institute, Dehra 

 Dun, India. 



The first five chapters deal with the more general phases of 

 the subject, such as the distribution of forest insects in India 

 (Chap. I), the methods by which the presence of insect pests in 

 the forest can be ascertained, the general methods of control and 

 the characteristics of the order Coleoptera. The special part 

 treating of the various families and species of beetles, which are 

 arranged according to Lefroy's Indian Insect Life, comprises 

 the remaining 27 chapters. It deals with a very large number of 

 species, about most of which very little is known; but the life 

 histories of not a few of the more destructive species have been 

 worked out by the author, and their economic relations, methods 

 of control, etc., are given in considerable detail. 



A good many of the species noticed are of no economic impor- 

 tance, all species showing any definite relation to trees or tree 

 products being included, on account of the necessity, on the part 



