REVIEWS. 205 



not for collecting only but for the observation of habits, season and life- 

 history. The Society will be glad to receive specimens, to name what they 

 can and to collect all the material possible for future volumes of the Fauna. 



H. M. LEFROY. 



"INDIAN INSECT LIFE." 



A MANUAL OF THE INSECTS OF THE PLAINS (TROPICAL INDIA). 



By H. Maxwell-Lefroy, M.A., F.E.S., F.Z.S., 



Assisted by F. M. Howlett, B.A., F.E.S. 



Twenty-five years ago there was very little available literature on Indian 

 Entomology and the new arrival in the country, however enthusiastic in the 

 pursuit of insects and their ways, soon found his ardour evaporate under the 

 continued disappointment of not being able to determine or put a name to any 

 of his captures. At least this was true of everything except, perhaps, but- 

 terflies. Even about these, there was only Marshall and de Niceville's partially 

 completed work to be had. And this was expensive. On Beetles and Flies, 

 on Bugs and Grasshoppers and Dragon flies, &c, there was nothing, absolutely 

 nothing. In 1888 the Government of India authorised the compilation of 

 •' The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma " dealing, in a 

 series of volumes, with the zoology of the countries mentioned. Up-to-date 

 several volumes on Insects have appeared and these constitute so far the only 

 works published dealing exclusively with Indian Entomology by means of 

 which captures can be named. But as yet very few families of insects have 

 been treated in those books and the field entomologist is to-day nearly as 

 badly off as he was a quarter of a century ago. The study of Insects has been 

 tremendously advanced in the last twenty years but nearly all the information 

 gathered is disseminated throughout Europe in the different journals or 

 magazines of the Zoological and Entomological Societies. Little of it is there- 

 fore available to the working entomologist. The " Fauna " above mentioned 

 has as yet dealt only with the Moths, the Butterflies, the Bugs or Hemiptera 

 and a few of the Coleoptera, none of which have been completed at the present 

 hour. No attempt had been made to deal with Indian Entomology as a whole 

 or for any considerable part thereof until Mr. Maxwell-Lefroy published his 

 '• Indian Insect Life " last year. It is not necessary to say that the want of 

 such a book has been felt for many years back. There was no one before with 

 sufficient leisure or sufficient energy to write it. There have, of course, been 

 good entomologists in this country in the past but most of them have been 

 Government Officials who were only able to pursue the subject as a hobby in 

 the intervals of their legitimate duties. Mr. Lefroy has been luckier, being an 

 Entomologist by profession, employed by the Government of India under the 

 title of Entomologist, Imperial Department of Agriculture for India, with a 

 good library of reference at his disposal, a sufficient staff of artists and a good 



