176 



Herms (W. B.)- Medical and Veterinary Entomology. — New York, 

 MacMillan & Co. 1915, pp. xii + 393, 228 figs. Price 17s. net. 

 This book is based upon the author's lecture notes as teacher of 

 parasitology in the University of California and in the San Francisco 

 Veterinary College and includes some original work hitherto unpub- 

 lished. The preface states that it is not intended to be a comprehensive 

 treatise, but rather an attempt to systematise the subject, serving at the 

 same time as a handbook for those professionally interested. To this 

 end, detailed accounts of experiments and methods of investigation 

 are included. An outline of the subject with chapters on parasites, 

 insect anatomy, especially of the mouth-parts, the classification of 

 insects, and the manner in which they carry and cause disease occupy 

 36 pages. Among individual insects and their relation to the 

 disease, cockroaches as contaminators of food, and the beetles, Lach- 

 nostermi and Melolontha, as the intermediate hosts of the tapeworm, 

 Echinorhynchus gigas, in pigs are mentioned. The chapter on lice deals 

 vnth both Anoplura and Mallophaga, their hosts, the diseases they 

 transmit and the most effective methods of control. A similar chapter 

 deals with bed-bugs and blood-sucking Reduviids. The chapters on 

 mosquitos and Phlebotomus occupy 62 pages and contain a large amount 

 of condensed information with a key to the classification of mosquitos 

 after Theobald. Methods of control are fully dealt vnth, and tables are 

 given showing the excellent results obtained from anti-mosquito work 

 in Havana, Ismailia and Panama. Another chapter is devoted to 

 Tabanids and horse-flies, including a key to the North American 

 Tabanidae after Hine. The house-fly and its control naturally claim 

 a large amount of attention ; the portion of this section deahng with 

 manure heaps might be expanded with advantage. The effect of the 

 heat produced by fermentation on fly larvae and the use which can be 

 made of it in checking the breeding of flies in manure heaps and at the 

 same time preserving the agricultural value of the manure is not referred 

 to, while some of the methods advised for control involve the destruction 

 of the material as a fertihser. The chapter on blood-sucking Muscids 

 contains a brief account of some of the species of Glossina and their 

 relation to trypanosomiasis, while Stomoxys calcitrans is dealt with at 

 length. Six species of fleas are illustrated, and the methods for con- 

 trolling the squirrels, Citellus douglasi of the Pacific coast and 0. beecheyi 

 of the interior, both of which are reputed plague-carriers, are given in 

 some detail. The chapter on ticks devotes special attention to Mar- 

 garopus anmdatus, Dermacentor venustus and the Argasids. The various 

 mites which attack man and animals and the methods of treatment 

 are fully dealt with, and the book concludes with a chapter on venomous 

 insects and Arachnids. To those interested in the subject, this book 

 should prove a valuable work of reference, while in many cases the 

 foot-notes supply information as to original papers when further 

 details are required. 



Ferris (G. F.). Notes on Anoplura and Mallophaga from Mammals, 



with Descriptions of Four New Species and a New Variety of 



Anoplura.— Pst/c/^e, Boston, Moss., xxiii, no. 4, August 1916, 



pp. 97-120, 12 figs. 



This paper records a number of Anoplura from North America, the 



following being described as new : — Neohaetnatopimis antennatus, 



