36 Psyche [April 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



EiELD Book of Insects. 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, etc.; 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. C. T. B, 



A Year of Costa Rican Natural 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 by a 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. T. B. 



