30 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Insect Transformation. By George H. Carpenter, D.Sc. 

 Pp. x+282. AVith 4 Plates and 124 other Illustrations. 

 London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1921. Price 12s. 6d. net. 



This is a thoroughly good and up-to-date book on an intensely 

 interesting subject, and one which will assuredly take a high place in 

 the literature of entomology. Professor Carpenter is a well-known 

 investigator in this branch of zoology, and is specially qualified to deal 

 with the problems he has set himself to elucidate in the present volume. 

 The subject is treated in a manner intended to prove of service to the 

 general reader as well as to the student. A short introduction is 

 followed by a chapter on " Form, Growth, and Change," the grasshopper 

 or locust — a comparatively " lowly" insect showing no striking difference 

 between the young and the adult — being selected for the main 

 description, with which more specialised forms — dragon-fly, moth and 

 butterfly — are then contrasted. Succeeding chapters deal with the two 

 types — "open" and "hidden" — of wing-growth, some wingless insects, 

 the class and orders of insects, growing insects and their surroundings 

 (a section full of interesting matter), all leading up to the final chapter 

 on " The Problems of Transformation," in which the meaning and origin 

 of insect metamorphosis, as seen in the life-histories of the various 

 groups, and its bearing on the history of the class as a whole, are ably 

 discussed. 



The insects selected for demonstration are, it may be remarked, in 

 the main species of economic importance. Full references to the many 

 books and papers laid under contribution are given in footnotes 

 throughout the work, thus rendering a bibliography unnecessary ; the 

 illustrations are numerous and good, and there is an excellent index. 

 The volume is exceptionally free from errors, Drosophala (p. 167, 

 footnote) for Drosophila, and Aleryrodidce (p. 266) for Aleyrodidse 

 being practically all that have met our eye. 



