206 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [xXXI, '20 



Chittenden, F. H. — Description of a new species of Sphenophorus 

 from Florida. (Jour. Wash. Acad. Sci., x, 313-14). 



HYMENOPTERA. Brues, G. T.— The braconid genus Trachypetus. 

 5, xxvii, 59-62. Brunnich, K. — Zur frage der geschlechtsbestimmung 

 bei den bienen. 45, xv, 188-9. Hase, A. — Ueber den putzvorgang bei 

 der schlupfwespe Lariophagus distinguendus. 110, xix, 81-7. Smith, 

 E. J. — Removing pollen from bees. 4, Hi, 116. Wheeler, W. M. — 

 The subfamilies of Formicidae, and other taxonomic notes. 5, xxvii, 

 46-55- 



Bradley, J. C. — Descriptions, records and notes on North American 

 Nyssonidae. 2, xlvi, 113-32. 



Insect Behavior. By Paul Griswold Howes. With illustrations 

 from Photographs by the Author. Richard G. Badger. The Gorham 

 Press. Boston. $6.00 net. — This work is printed in large readable type 

 and contains 172 pages and a large number of admirable halftone illustra- 

 tions (114) which are original. The author mentions the work as being 

 written in a light enough vein to be entertaining to the reader, however 

 casually interested he may be in insect life, but at the same time, one 

 that is in every way scientifically accurate. Chapters two to eight in- 

 clusive treat exclusively of South American insects, studied in the jungles 

 of British Guiana. 1 his is the most valuable part of the book. The 

 remainder of the work is nearly all devoted to the insects of the Eastern 

 United States. There seems to be a tendecy in such books to become a 

 bit poetical and overlook sometimes that which is in "every way scientifi- 

 cally accurate," for instance "when the eggs have given birth to their 

 curious children." "The chrysalis of a butterfly ... a species of 

 Vanessa ... it cannot thrash around and make a demonstration." 

 What the chrysalis of Vanessa antiopa really does when disturbed is thrash 

 around and make a big demonstration. The lay reader might infer that 

 the great cecropia moth feeds on the newly opened blossoms, but the 

 ones we have seen had no mouth parts for such a purpose. We are quite 

 sure that its eggs do not "split open in the center, " at least ours never did. 

 We have never seen "the convenient spot in the corner or the under side 

 of the piece of old lumber where the cecropia makes its cocoon." In 

 spite of some poetical (?) licenses the book is an excellent one in its field. 

 H. S. 



Manual of the Odonata of New England by Dr. R. Heber Howe ■ 

 Jr. Memoirs of the Thoreau Museum of Natural History: II. 1917^ 

 1920. Concord, Massachusetts. $1.35. — In this handy manual nature 

 lovers in the northeastern states have now a brief introduction to the 

 dragonflies of their region which makes a knowledge of the names of these 

 interesting insects available to any who may wish to be properly intro- 

 duced to them. 



