5i6 



NA TURE 



[September 19, 1907 



We have, fortunately, no representative of the 

 termites, or white ants, in Britain, though one species 

 is found as far north as Bordeaux ; but the author 

 figures the huge nests of several Australian species, 

 one of which, Termes meridinnalis, Froggatt, builds 

 what is called a " magnetic nest," like a brick wall, 

 about 10 feet high and long (judging from the figure 

 of the man standing in front), always pointing north 

 and south, with the wall facing east and west. 

 Another species, Eiitcrmes pyrijormis, builds a tower- 

 ing pillar-shaped nest, often iS feet high. 



.Among the more remarkable specially Australian 

 insects of various orders figured in this book, we may 

 mention the curious apterous desert cockroaches 

 (genus Polyzostcria, p. ly) ; the great Phasmidae (of 

 which Podacanihus wilkinsoni, Macleay, is figured as 

 an example on plate v.); various strange grass- 

 hoppers, &c. (on plates vi. and vii.), and ncuropterous 

 insects (pp. 60, 61, plate ix.); the curious sawflies 

 belonging to the genus Perga, &-c. (pp. 71-73, plates 

 X. and xi.); various handsome Buprestidae (plate 

 xviii.); the gaudy day-flying moths of the 

 family .Agaristida; (p. 233) and the " whistling 

 (stridulating) moths " of the genus Hecatesia, 

 which emit sounds like the call of a Cicada 

 (pp. 234, 235), of which latter group there are 

 also many large and remarkable Australian species. 

 We may also note that while the butterflies of 

 Australia are not specially numerous or remark- 

 able, the moths are extremely numerous and interest- 

 ing, many being very remarkable either for their size, 

 their structure, or their beauty. Of course, we do 

 not meet with many British species, but among them 

 we may mention forms of the painted lady butterfly 

 and the convolvulus hawkmoth, hardly distinct from 

 the ordinary European insects, and the well-known 

 meal moth or flour moth (Asopia faniialis, L.) figured 

 on p. 269. 



Occasionally we note a trifling error ; thus, on 

 p. 41, the names Lociista danica and Qidaleus sene- 

 galensis appear to have been transposed by some 

 accident. 



We congratulate Mr. Froggatt on the publication 

 of this useful and interesting book. W. F. K. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Nature's Craftsmen: Popular Studies of Ants and 

 other Insects. By Henry Christopher McCook. 

 Illustrated from Nature. Pp. xi+317. (London 

 and New York : Harper and Brothers, 1907.) Price 

 ys. 6d. net. 



Dr. McCook has long been known as one of the most 

 painstaking and successful of the investigators of 

 insect life in .America, and the publication of a selec- 

 tion of his researches in a more popular form will, wc 

 hope, bring them under the notice of a far wider 

 public than his former works have appealed to. There 

 is no want of variety in the volume before us, and, in 

 addition to ants and spiders, which are perhaps the 

 author's favourites, he discusses bees, wasps, ant-lions, 

 cicadas, caddises, &c. Still, nearlv one-third of the 

 book is taken up with the most interesting subject of 

 the whole insect world, ants; probablv the most highly 

 organised of all known animals, born, not only in 

 complete armour, like some of the ancient gods' and 

 NO. 1977, VOL. 76] 



heroes, but provided with all the tools and requisites 

 necessary for their busy and industrious lives, even 

 to brushes and combs, &'C. Their wonderfully 

 organised communities, where each works for all, and 

 all for each, make our most advanced civilisations 

 apoear almost as barbarism in comparison, and our 

 grandest architectural and engineering triumphs little 

 better than mud-pies. 



.Among the most curious developments of ant-life 

 are the so-called "honey-ants," where the nests con- 

 tain a certain class of ants in which the abdomen 

 becomes enormously distended with a sweet substance 

 derived from a kind of oak-gall. When they have 

 attained this condition, they pass their lives in the 

 nests, hanging to the uneven roofs of the vaulted 

 chambers, and thev dispense food to the workers, by 

 whom they are tended like the other dependent classes 

 of the community, such as the queens and larvae. 

 .An excellent illustration of one of these internal cham- 

 bers is given on p. 99. This was taken from a nest 

 eight feet long, three feet high, and a foot and a half 

 wide, formed of galleries and chambers honeycombed 

 in the solid rock. 



The book is written in a very pleasing style through- 

 out, with the exception of the last few pages, which 

 bear signs of haste. The illustrations are also 

 numerous and spirited, and many readers will.be 

 plea.sed to see the frontispiece, which gives us a por- 

 trait of the amiable author sitting on a lawn in a 

 garden chair. 



In conclusion, we may perhaps venture to express a 

 regret that the word " instinct " is still used, as it 

 appears to us to be an obsolete expression which is 

 philosophically untenable at the present day, and 

 which it would be just as well to avoid. 

 Concrete Steel Buildings. By W. Noble Twelvetrees. 



Pp. xii-F4o8. (London : Whittaker and Co., 1907.) 



Price los. net. 

 This is a companion volume to the author's work on 

 concrete steel, in which the distinctive characteristics 

 of reinforced concrete were dealt with, and the theory 

 underlying the design of structures in this material 

 was discussed fully and in detail. In the present 

 volume the author gives particulars of a number of 

 typical pieces of constructional work in ferro-concrete 

 which have been carried out in this country and abroad 

 during the past few years. Mr. Twelvetrees has 

 selected with great care the various examples of this 

 method of building construction which he describes, 

 and architects and engineers who consult this book 

 will have little trouble in finding full descriptions of 

 buildings similar to any they may be called upon to 

 design. E.xamples of transit sheds for docks, rail- 

 way goods stations, warehouses, factory buildings, 

 business premises, villas, flour mills, hotels, theatres, 

 &c., are all in turn fully described, and excellent illus- 

 trations are given of all important details, with copious 

 notes as to the methods of making the concrete, the 

 nature and disposition of the reinforcing steel, and of 

 the results of proof tests of the structures. In the 

 illustrations, which form a very important feature of 

 a book of this nature, the author has wisely contented 

 himself with giving the chief overall dimensions. 

 When a radical departure from ordinary practice, such 

 as the use of ferro-concrete. is made in constructional 

 works, much can be learnt from the inevitable failures; 

 and the last chapter of the book is devoted to a brief 

 account of a few noteworthy collapses and of the probr 

 able causes of these failures, whether due to faulty 

 design, or to bad workmanship, or to both cau.ses. 

 In the appendi.K a list is given of concrete-steel build- 

 ings and other structures in the United Kingdom, 

 which will be found useful by those who are anxious 

 to have the chance of inspecting such works before 



