./amiiirv 1SS9.J 



PSYCHE. 



151 



year, of an abundance of eggs from difleient 

 females, none hatched. Ninety eggs of Sp/l- 

 oso'f/a zatima^ obtained after a consanguin- 

 eous union failed to hatch. Of Crocallis dar- 

 doinaria, which has a single annual brood, 

 the first year 480 eggs, and the second year 

 about 500 eggs, all proved fertile, but the 

 third year not an e.^^^ hatched out of a large 

 number obtained. 



Eiicrostis indigenata arid C id aria vi tiara 

 failed to produce fertile eggs with consan- 

 guineous parents. 



He adds : "On the contrary A'e in or ia au. 

 reliaria raised in captivity, has not. during 

 more than ten years, ceased to be fertile, both 

 for spring and fall generations." 



"I could multiply these examples, but the 

 facts which I give suffice to show the inter- 

 est which pertains, from the point of view of 

 the establishment of specific characters for 

 lepidoptei'a, to the verifying that, in each 

 species, the continuance of the reproductive 

 power varies when the pairings aie between 

 consanguineous individuals and without the 

 introduction of new blood. 



As Crocallis, Eiicrosiis, Cidaria, and 

 Nemoria all belong to the geojnetridae, the 

 variability of reproductiveness in close- 

 breeding in a single family is very marked. 

 Experiments on such biological subjects need 

 multiplication. G: Dimmock. 



PACKARD'S "ENTOMOLOGY FOR 



BEGINNERS." 

 In A. S. Packard's " Entomology for be- 

 ginners" appears, for the first time from an 

 American publisher, possibly the first time 

 in the English language, a work on general 

 entomology which presents the subject in 

 accordance with modern scientific progress. 

 Instead of being a systematical classification 

 and enumeration of insects to which the 

 study of their anatomy, physiology, and 

 biology is subordinated or appended, as is 

 generally the case with entomological works, 

 the systematic part of this work occupies 

 only about one-third of its pages, and is 

 sprinkled with allusions to habits, and to 



internal as well as to external anatomv. The 

 great number of species of insects make it 

 necessary to fill a larger proportion of the 

 work with details of classification than would 

 be the case in considering any other division 

 of the animal kingdom. The chapter devoted 

 to "insects injurious and beneficial to agri- 

 culture" is short, but contains as many de- 

 tails, proportionally to the size of the whole 

 book, as seems necessary in a general ento- 

 mological work. 



Of special importance and value are the 

 chapters devoted to modes of collecting, pre- 

 serving, and rearing insects; to their dissec- 

 tion; and to the cutting and mounting of 

 sections of insects, whole insects, or their 

 organs, for microscopical study. Here Pro- 

 fessor Packard has brought together a good 

 number of methods from widely separated 

 sources. The directions fordissection and for 

 microscopical research must prove very useful 

 to the younger students in America who 

 are beginning to turn their attention from 

 unwieldy entomological collections to the 

 comparative anatomy and histology of 

 insects. At first reading of Professor Pack- 

 ard's work, I was inclined to believe that 

 these methods should have been revised and 

 more thoroughly combined in his work, but 

 a second examination convinced me that the 

 nearer each description retained the words of 

 the originator of the process the better, leav- 

 ing the student or investigator to select for 

 himself the method or parts of methods best 

 suited to his special requirements. 



The list of periodicals and works on ento- 

 mology which occupies ten pages, near the 

 end of the work, is well selected, but there is 

 a lack of uniformity in typographical matters 

 in this list, and in the numerous bibliograph- 

 ical references in the body of the work. 

 Slight inaccuracies of statement are notice- 

 able in places in the work, which is not won- 

 derful when its scope and extent are consid- 

 ered, but it will prove most useful not only 

 to beginners but to all entomologists. 



G : Dimmock. 



