36 Psyche [April 
BOOK REVIEWS. 
Fievp Book or Insscts. Lutz, F. E. 509 pp., pocket octavo, 101 
plates of numerous figures. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 
1918. $2.50. 
This book is an innovation among insect books in several ways. 
It is printed on thin paper with narrow margins and on this account 
contains more material than would appear from its exterior; it 
includes keys‘to the families of some orders, to the genera of some 
families and to the species of a few groups of conspicuous insects 
like the longicorn beetles, household flies, bumble-bees, ete.; and 
lastly it is written by one who has had unusual opportunities to find 
out what the “layman” really wants to know about insects. 
From the latter it must not be inferred that the entomologist will 
not find the book useful, especially to put in the hands of beginning 
students. The illustrations, many of which are colored, are very 
good and well selected, the great majority original, from drawings 
by Mrs. Beutenmuller. Unfortunately the publishers have failed 
entirely to number the colored plates but as all the figures have the 
names appearing beneath them this omission is not so bad as it 
might have been. CT 
A Yrar or Costa Rican Naturau History. Calvert, A. S. and 
P. P. Calvert. Octavo, pp. 577, with numerous half-tone 
illustrations and map. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1917. 
Although this is a general account of Costa Rican natural history, 
its writers are particularly interested in dragon-flies, and the book is 
in quite considerable part entomological. Aside from a description 
of the country and its people as observed by the writers during their 
visit, there are notes on the fauna and flora illustrated bya series of 
good photographs and a large number of observations on insects 
other than Odonata. The writers were in Cartago at the time of 
the destructive earthquakes of May, 1910, but fortunately escaped 
injury and were able to save the collections they had made. 
The book gives an idea of the entomological possibilities of 
Costa Rica and should be of interest to entomologists or others 
planning to visit this country as well as to those expecting to 
journey in other parts of the American tropics for the first time. 
C.aieB: 
