262 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Sept., 'o6 



Entomological Literature. 



Entomology with Special Reference to its Biological and 

 Economic Aspects. — By Justus Watson Folsom, Sc. D. (Harvard), 

 Instructor in Entomology at the University of Illinois. With five plates 

 (one colored) and 300 text-figures. Philadelphia : P. Blakiston's Son 6c 

 Co., 101 2 Walnut Street. 1906. Octavo. Cloth, $3.00 net. Pp. vii, 485. 



The preface states: "This book gives a comprehensive and concise 

 account of insects. Though planned primarily for the student, it is 

 intended also for the general reader. The book was written in an effort 

 to meet the growing demand for a biological treatment of entomology. 

 The existence of several excellent works on the classification of insects 

 (notably Comstock's Manual, Kellogg's American Insects and Sharp's 

 Insects) has enabled the author to omit the multitudinous details of clas- 

 sification and to introduce much material that has hitherto not appeared 

 in text books." 



It may be added that this work is also utterly different from Packard's 

 Text Book of Entomology ; perhaps it most resembles Carpenter's In- 

 sects, Their Structure and Life, among recent books in this field, but it 

 devotes still less space to taxonomy, for Carpenter gives us the charac- 

 ters of all the principal families of insects while Dr. Folsom descends to 

 no lower category than that of the suborders. 



The effort to meet the demand for a biological treatment is shown by 

 the list of chapters and their relative length. Chapters I. Classification, 

 26 pp., II. Anatomy and Physiology, 119 pp., and III. Development, 38 

 pp., form about 44% of the reading matter of the volume. The remain- 

 ing Chapters, IV-XIII. are ecological and are the more interesting, 

 partly by virtue of the merit claimed for them in that their matter, in 

 large part, has not hitherto appeared in text books. Their titles are 

 worth quoting to give the reader an idea of their nature : IV. Adaptations 

 of Aquatic Insects ; V. Color and Coloration (based largely on the works 

 of Mayer, Tower, Edwards, Pictet and Poulton) ; VI. Adaptive Colora- 

 tion (with the whole subject of Protective Resemblance, Warning Color- 

 ation and Protective Mimicry, as interpreted in the light of the results of 

 Finn, Judd, Bates, Wallace, F. Muller, Dixey and Marshall and Poulton, 

 and illustrated by the colored frontispiece of protective mimicry among 

 butterflies, including that wonderful Papilio merope and its mimicking 

 harem) ; VII. Origin of Adaptations and of Species (general and theo- 

 retical with little direct discussion of insects) ; VIII. Insects in relation to 

 Plants (foods, galls, plant-enemies of insects, pollination, structural mod- 

 ifications in relation to plants, ant-plants) ; IX. Insects in relation to 

 other Animals (as predaceous, parasitic, food, disease-transmitters) ; X. 

 Interrelations of Insects (parasites and hyperparasites, social life) ; XI. 

 Insect Behavior (tropisms, instinct, intelligence) ; XII. Distribution (geo- 

 graphical and geological) ; XIII. Insects in relation to Man (as injurious 

 and beneficial, with an historical sketch of early economic entomology in 

 America based on Howard's writings). 



