423 



A NEW MANUAJ^ OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



There is no text-book on entomology in any language which contains 

 so many points of excellence as does the recently published Manual 

 for the Study of Insects, by Professor and Mrs. Com stock. English- 

 speaking students are fortunate that such a work has been published 

 in English, and American students are particularly fortunate that it is 

 based ujiou forms which inhabit this country. It is a large work, 

 comprising about 700 pages, and includes a more or less detailed con- 

 sideration of insects and their near relatives, such as the spiders, 

 mites, and scorpions. In all cases there are synoptical tables to 

 families, and many of the commoner forms are figured and described. 

 Particular attention is paid to habits and transformations, and species 

 of economic importance are singled out for especial mention, remedies 

 being given in many cases. The insects proper are divided into nine- 

 teen orders, and much original work upon classification is indicated. 

 The greatest reform which the book maktes is in the nomenclature of 

 the wing veins of the insects of different orders. The veins have been 

 homologized throughout all orders, and a uniform numerical nomencla- 

 ture has been applied. Entomological students will in the future, as a 

 direct result, be spared a large share of the trouble and annoyance 

 which older workers have had through the extraordinary confusion 

 which has hitherto existed in this direction. The work is most pro- 

 fusely illustrated, containing about 800 text illustrations in addition 

 to 6 full-page plates. Most of the illustrations have been drawn and 

 engraved especially for this work by Mrs. Comstock, the main excep- 

 tions being a series taken from the author's Government reports and 

 certain diagrams of wing- venation which have been done by some of 

 Professor Comstock's assistants. 



AN INSTANCE OF INTELLIGENCE IN ANTS. 



The January number of Revista Brasileira, a monthly magazine just 

 started at Rio Janeiro, contains an interesting note upon the intelli- 

 gence displayed by the so-called sauba ant (probably (Ecodoma cephal- 

 otcs). It seems to be the general opinion that these ants spare the coffee 

 trees that grow about the ant-hills. They enjoy the shade afitbrded by 

 these evergreen trees, whose roots penetrate their galleries, and hence 

 endeavor to preserve them, despoiling only those which furnish them 

 no protection. The writer of the note referred to witnessed near Rio 

 an interesting exhibition of the intelligence of these insects. A "Rosi- 

 nante" lodged in a stable built of boards was being daily defrauded of 

 a portion of his rations by the sauba s. We quote from a translation 

 from the Portuguese kindly sent us by Mr. J. C. Branner: 



No sooner was the corn put in the feed trough than the scouting ants announced 

 the fact, and a line of workers was iunnediately established, and, penetrating by the 

 cracks between the boards, they came out, each one loaded with a grain of corn, with 

 which it descended on the outside. lu this descent there was a reentrant angle, 



