294 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. Vol. XX. 



for beetles recently issued by this Society, much material has been received 

 which is being pinned, set, identified and the new material arranged for the 

 furtherance of the future Fauna volumes. In view of the above projected 

 volumes, we would urge that members should collect insects likely to be of 

 value for these volumes. The appeal for beetles has met with a good 

 response : we would appeal now for cockroaches, grasshoppers, locustids, stick 

 insects, mantids and especially crickets. These are, with the beetles, the 

 really important groups required now; it should be needless to say that 

 collections of Liccenids and Hesperhds are badly wanted, but this will appeal 

 only to butterfly collectors, while every m ember can collect and send in the 

 other groups, notably the crickets and grasshoppers. Members of this Society 

 alone in India can help in this work and can assist in providing the material on 

 which the volumes will be provided ; when a volume is projected, its ultimate 

 value depends very largely on the fresh material available for examination and 

 this can be supplied very largely by the members of this Society. 



Turning to the present volume, we would congratulate the author upon it ;. 

 the general introduction is extremely good, taking account of the life-history 

 and habits in a way rare among authors of systematic works. The author 

 describes 133 species of earwigs of Ceylon, India and Burmah, and gives a 

 revised scheme of classification. He appeals for more material, as there are 

 many questions unsettled, and he takes a broad view of the value of the 

 present classification. Like other specialists he is desirous of emphasising the 

 importance of his group and makes it an order under the term Dermaptera. 

 The section on geographical distribution is notable and the paragraphs on 

 determination of species form a feature of the utmost value, as former volumes' 

 have been really used only by trained entomologists very largely because the 

 layman could not get an explanation of the terms used in the volume ; Mr. 

 Burr's paragraphs make the volume one that can be used at once by any one 

 who will take the trouble to master the introduction and carefully read this 

 section. 



The author describes 133 species - from India. Burmah and Ceylon. Of 

 these, 32 are from widespread localities in the Himalayas, Ceylon, Burmah 

 and other subtropical areas, 30 are from Burmah alone, 18 from Ceylon 

 alone, 25 from Himalayan localities only, 6 from Burmah and Ceylon alone, 

 while 20 only are recorded from localities in the plains of India, i.e., from 

 tropical India as I understand it. The species recorded from tropical localities 

 are usually also found in subtropical areas, and there is practically nothing 

 found in tropical India which is peculiar to it in the sense that the 25 Hima- 

 layan species are, as at present known, only Himalayan. Forficididm are not 

 a large part of the fauna of the tropical plains but are more abundant in 

 species in moister hill areas. Our Forficulid fauna in the plains is a " derived" 

 one of recent times, not an indigenous " original" one. 



The volume is well illustrated with text diagrams and ten plates, one in 

 colour. We trust it will stimulate workers in India to turn to the Orthoptera- 





