September 5, 1907] 



NA TURE 



467 



classification drawn up by Dr. Lutz, no changes have 

 been made in this volume. The Corethrins have, 

 however, been excluded from the Culicidfe and raised 

 to family rank, partly on account of the asiphonate 

 character of the larvse, but mainly by the absence of 

 piercing mouth-parts and of scales in the adults. 



Felt's ' new method of classification, based upon 

 the genital armature of the males and the wing vena- 

 tion, is discussed at some length, but abandoned as 

 unpractical on the grounds (i) that the majority of 

 known mosquitoes are females only, and thus we 

 should not be able to place many of our well-known 

 species in any genus ; and (2) that the cross-veins in 

 the venation of the wings are subject to so great a 

 variation that generic characters cannot be fixed by 

 them. The author also points out that Messrs. Dyar 

 and Knab's' unusual classification of the Culicidae by 

 larval characters only cannot be admitted. We 

 need scarcely point out that any radical changes 

 in the classification of these insects will result in 

 endless confusion, especially so if based mainly upon 

 local knowledge; and as practically all British, French 

 and South American doctors and entomologists have 

 adopted the Theobaldian classification, anything more 

 than a modification of this system would be followed 

 by somewhat disastrous results, especially among the 

 students of the medical profession who are engaged 

 in the study of the Culicidae in connection with 

 tropical diseases. 



In the general notes we find a reference to Major 

 Adie's evidence as to the benefit of Leiuina minor, L., 

 as a means of preventing mosquitoes from laying their 

 eggs on water. He states that " tanks covered with 

 this flat weed never contain larvae of Culicidae, whilst 

 others at the same time of year are full of them." 

 This genus of plants has apparently the same 

 marked effect upon the frequency of both Anopheles 

 and Culex in this country. 



The natural reservoirs formed bv the flowers of 

 Heliconia brasiliensis, Hook., in Ceylon, the leaves of 

 Nepenthes and various Bromeliaceous plants and the 

 cut ends of bamboo in South America, are given as the 

 breeding places of both Anophelines and Culicines. 

 Mr. E. E. Green, of Ceylon, has contributed some 

 notes on Myzomyia rossii, Giles, which he found 

 breeding in the brackish lake at Batticaloa. There 

 are also some interesting notes on the bionomics of 

 Nyssorhynchus fuUi^inostis ; but apart from these and 

 a few other references to the habits of mosquitoes, very 

 little is known of the earlier stages of a large pro- 

 portion of the Culicidse, so that those who have the 

 opportunity of observing these insects have the 

 pleasure of discovery before them. 



In a work which has been so admirably performed, 

 it is invidious, perhaps, to direct attention to any 

 errors either of omission or commission, but we note 

 that Patton's^ important -^""er in which he describes 

 five new species of .Anophelinae has been quite over- 

 lookfd, nor do we find any reference to Griinberg's ■" 

 new -Xnophelines described in 1905. 



1 Bull. 79, Ent. ?2. Nfw York State Museum. (1004.) 

 - "The LarvK of Culicida: classified as Independent Organisms." Journ. 

 New York Ent. Soc, vol. .\iv., pp. 169-230. (1906.) 

 ■■' Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc, 1905. 

 ^ Zool. .\nzeiger, Bd. xxix., No. r^, September, 1905. 



Mycotnyia hebes, Donitz (p. 42) ; Cellia piinctulata, 

 Donitz (p. 109) ; and Howardina chrysolineata, Theob. 

 (p. 218), are all omitted from the synoptical tables; 

 while Pyretophonis pitchfordi, Power (p. 72), and 

 Nyssorhynchus indiensis, Theob. (p. 98), are omitted 

 both from the synoptical tables and the lists of species 

 given under the respective genera. 



Myzomyia listoni, Liston, is given priority on pp. 

 41, 43, but is sunk to the position of a synonym of 

 M. christophersi, Theob., on p. 51. Under Culicada 

 jitchii. Felt and Young (p. 321), Fig. 112 is described 

 as Grabhamia fitchii; there are also some minor errors 

 in the text, evidently printer's. R. N. 



COMMERCIAL ORGANIC ANALYSIS. 

 Commercial Organic Analysis. By A. H. Allen. Vol. 

 ii., part iii. Pp. xii + S47. Third edition, re-written 

 and revised by the Author and A. R. Tankard. 

 (London : J. and .\. Churchill, 1907.) Price 20s. 



WITH the publication of this volume, the whole of 

 this standard work on the analysis of organic 

 materials occurring in commerce is again available in 

 a revised form. The preparation of this portion was 

 undertaken by Mr. .\llen so long ago as 1898, but, 

 owing to his ill-health, little progress was made, and 

 after his untimely death in 1904 the completion of the 

 book was undertaken by Mr. Tankard. 



The recent considerable additions to our knowledge 

 of volatile oils, rubbers, gutta-perchas, and resins, the 

 four principal groups of products now dealt with, have 

 necessitated extension of the space devoted to these 

 subjects in previous editions. As regards resins and 

 volatile oils the author was assisted by Mr. E. J. 

 Parry, and in the preparation of the article on oil of 

 turpentine Mr. .Archbutt was consulted, whilst Dr. 

 LefTmann, of Philadelphia, contributed a portion of 

 the section on aromatic acids and their Kydroxy- 

 derivatives. 



The method of treatment adopted is to give a short 

 critical rSsume of the present position of the chem- 

 istry of each product, followed by a summary of the 

 analytical methods available for its examination, one 

 or more of these being finally recommended as giving 

 trustworthy results in the author's own experience. 



In spite of the care which has evidently been taken 

 to secure accuracy in the information given, the 

 specialist will be able to find here and there in the 

 sections in which he is particularly interested state- 

 ments requiring emendation or amplification. Thus 

 the important matter of the botanical sources of 

 rubber should not have been dismissed in the state- 

 ment that it is " obtained from the latex of trees 

 growing in S. America, Africa, India, &c.," supple- 

 m.ented by the inaccurate footnote, ".A new source of 

 caoutchouc has been recently discovered in the root- 

 bark of Landolphia thrallonii. a plant growing in 

 Lower Guinea and the French Congo." The state- 

 ment that gutta-percha occurs in the latex of various 

 trees belonging to the Sapotacese (e.g. Palaqiiium 

 pustulata and other species) is all the information 

 vouchsafed regarding the source of this important 

 product, and is misleading since the best gutta 

 is obtained from Palaquiiivt gutta, P. pustulata yield- 



NO. 1975, VOX,. 76] 



