XXXIX 



Numerous Entomological works are published in England inde- 

 pendently of Societies and Natural-History periodicals. Some of 

 these are serials, like Hewitson's 'Exotic Butterflies' and Stainton's 

 magnificent ' Natural History of the Tineina,' of long standing and 

 acknowledged merit, the number of which has been increased during 

 the year by the ' Lepidoptera Exotica,' a quarterly work, published 

 by Mr. Janson, on a plan similar to Mr. Hewitson's well-known 

 publication, the plates and descriptions furnished by Mr. Butler. It 

 is seldom that an independent work appears containing the fruits of 

 original research in the more neglected departments of Entomology, 

 such as are frequent^ published on the Continent, and especially in 

 German}^ ; we have, however, to record the appearance, wdtlim the 

 last few weeks, of a book of this class, which I think will do credit 

 to Biitish Science. It is the ' Anatomy and Physiology of the 

 Blow-fly,' by Mr. B. T. Lowne, an octavo volume illustrated with 

 ten plates and published by Mr. Van Voorst. The work contains 

 the fruit of several years' close study of the minute anatomy and 

 morphology of this familiar insect, and as the attention of the 

 author has been kept alive to the morj^hology of the parts, and to 

 disputed points of fmiction of important organs, his observations 

 have a general bearing on insects, and will be found most suggestive 

 to students of all the Orders. There is much originality both in the 

 facts and deductions recorded m the book, and the arrangement and 

 style are so clear that with the aid of the figures, drawn by the 

 author himself from his own preparations, there is little difiiculty in 

 comprehending even the most obscure details. Among the new 

 points, the credit of which may be fairly claimed by him, is, first, 

 the exposition of tlie structure and development of the integument, 

 in which, admitting the conclusion that the derm consists of three 

 layers, he applies to them the names protoderm, mesoderm and 

 endoderm, rejecting the term cuticle for the outer layer or proto- 

 derm, which invests the whole surface of the insect, including even 

 the hairs and the eyes, and forming the lining-membrane of the 

 tracheal svstem, because it is quite unlike the cuticle in vertebrates, 

 being persistent and not deciduous : the different modes in which 

 these derms are evolved in the metamorphosis of the insect form 

 part of the originalit}' of his views upon them. Next may be 

 mentioned his observations on the foot-pads, and explanation of the 

 process by which flies can walk in an inverted position or on a 



