78 ORNITHOLOGIST 
ENTOMOLOGY. 
WRIGHT & BATES, 
73 Hanover St., Boston, Mass., 
ASSOCIATE EDITORS. 
Address all communications for this department as above. 

Book Notices. 
The Butterflies of Maine; by Prof. C. H. Fernald ; 
8 vo., pp. 104, with 28 illustrations. 
We desire to express our thanks to Prof. Fer- 
nald for a copy of this work. It was designed 
for the use of the students of the State College 
and for the farmers, but it is a very useful book 
fo any entomologist. The descriptions are full 
enough to offer easy means of identification and 
at the same time sufficiently simple that any one 
would recognize them. 
It mentions fifty-nine species as being found in 
Maine and gives a very useful artificial key for 
determing the species. 
In our April number we noticed a work soon 
to be forthcoming, on the “Sphingidse of New 
=ngland.’’* 
This has since been received and is all that has 
been expected. It will take its place as one of 
the standard works of the country. The author 
gives a synoptical table which in itself is almost 
invaluable to the careful student. There are 
descriptions of forty-three species and varieties 
comprising twenty-two genera. , 
The book is illustrated by six full pages. 

*The Sphingide of New England; by Prof. C. H. Fer- 
nald of Orono, Me. 8 yo., pp. 85, illustrated with six full 
page plates. 

Practical Entomology. 
BY WRIGHT AND BATES, 73 HANOYER SI., BOSTON. 
(Continued from page 60.) 

DIPTERA. 
PECULIARITIES: Two membraneous. wings, 
with irregular venation, the secondaries being re- 
duced to two knobs or balances. 
The mouth parts are formed for piercing and 
sacking. Transformations complete. 
pupa unlike the imago. 
Localities where they are generally found: 
The Culicidw (mosquitoes and gnats) are most 
plentiful about wet lands, but sufficiently so any- 
where. 
The Pipulidw (crane flies) are to be found about 
decaying vegetable matter, as are also the Myceto- 
ph ilidw. 
Larva and 
The Cecidomyidw (gall flies) are almost omni- 
present and are very destructive to vegetable life. 
[Vol. 11-No. 5 
The Pulicida (fleas), Llippobosctde (sheep-ticks) 
and the Nyctertbide (bat-ticks) are parasitic on 
the animal kingdom and are found upon their 
bodies and in their habitations. 
The Zobanida (horse flies) and the O6cestridw 
(bot-flies) are generally most common about pas- 
tures and marshes, and flying about cattle. 
The Syrphide (plant lice feeders) are generally 
favorites with collectors on account of their 
bright colors; they hover about in the warm sun- 
shine over the flowers and plarts. 
The Muscide (house flies) are well known to 
all. They are most aburfdant about houses and 
stables. 
This family, with but few exceptions, can be 
taken only in the warm weatber, though some of 
their larvee may be taken from under the bark of 
trees in the early spring. They may be captured 
by sweeping the grass in the fields and meadows, 
and with the net as they fly about over the flow- 
ers and about the fields. They are not very diffi- 
cult to breed and raise, and many may be pro- 
cured in this way. 
CRITICISM ON “PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGY.” 
[We have received the following letter, which 
explains itself, and cannot fail to attract the at- 
tention which it merits— W. & B.] 
“T think your papers on collecting and_pre- 
serving insects are very good. There are one or 
two points I would offer suggestions on, and they 
are these: 
“T have collected moths at sugar most carefully 
for the last fifteen years, have tried every bait, 
nostrum, and humbug mentioned in the entomolo- 
gical journals of this country and Europe and J 
have the dest success with a poor quality of mo- 
lasses, without beer or any other adulterant in it. 
Night after night I have used plain molasses and 
beer and molasses on a fence, alternating the ma- 
terials, and the plain molasses was quite as at- 
tractive if not more so than any of the mixtures. 
““Tecarry a plain lantern on my arm, without 
any screen and find that it works better than a 
bull’s eye. The latter turns on the light so sud- 
denly as to scare them. 
“The large collectors and museums in all coun- 
tries use only the flat presses so that when the 
insect is dry the wings are in a plane at right 
angles with the pin. The fact is that when in- 
sects are taken out of the press before they are 
thoroughly dry, their wings go up quite as fre- 
quently as down. It is a noteworthy fact that 
although nearly every book giving directions, ad- 
vise the sloping press, as you have, there is searce- 
ly an entomologist in this country who uses any- 
thing except the level presses. 
C. Tl. Fernaup, Maine State College. 
