April 22, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



627 



discussed. Occasionally there appears to be 

 a slight looseness in wording, as, for example, 

 ■where the author states that members of the 

 other orders are " deliberately mimicked " 

 (p. 39Y). Presumably this is hardly what the 

 author intends. We regret the absence of any 

 note upon the value of birds as checks upon 

 insect life. Members of this class rank as 

 most important agents in controlling injuri- 

 ous insects in the temperate regions, and it 

 would seem as though there should be some 

 discussion of the relations existing between 

 them and insect life, even in a work treating 

 of tropical species. The book is completed by 

 a table of contents and an index. We much 

 prefer the general index to separate indices 

 for plants and insects. 



This volume with its large series of illus- 

 trations, most of them excellent and some 

 surprisingly accurate, must prove of great 

 service to Indian entomologists and of value 

 to others desiring to make comparisons be- 

 tween faunae of different regions. It is par- 

 ticularly serviceable to the economic ento- 

 mologist, since the authors have given most 

 of their attention to applied entomology, and 

 many of the colored plates illustrate insect 

 pests. They are to be congratulated upon hav- 

 ing prepared a work which will do much to 

 advance the knowledge of Indian entomology. 



E. P. Felt 



The Fauna of British India. Dermaptera. 

 By Malcolm Burr, D.Sc, M.A., F.E.S., 

 F.L.S., F.Z.S. Published under the au- 

 thority of the Secretary of State for India 

 in Council. London, Taylor & Francis. 

 1910. 8vo, pp. xviii + 217. One colored 

 and nine plain plates. Numerous figures 

 in the text. 



The last volume of " The Fauna of British 

 India " to appear from the press is the mono- 

 graphic work upon the Dermaptera of India, 

 Ceylon, and Burma, from the pen of Dr. Mal- 

 colm Burr. It is the first volume of the 

 series which has been published under the 

 supervision of Dr. A. E. Shipley, who upon 

 the death of Lieutenant-Colonel C. T. Bing- 

 ham, the successor of Dr. Blandford, assumed 



the editorship of this important series of pub- 

 lications. 



The Dermaptera, or earwigs, form a com- 

 pact and well-defined group of insects, which 

 originally were included by Linnseus among 

 the Coleoptera, by De Geer were raised to the 

 rank of an order, and by many later writers 

 have been treated as a family of the Orthop- 

 tera. Dr. Burr treats them as a distinct order, 

 and rejecting the amendments of the name 

 suggested by Agassiz and Burmeister, and the 

 half a dozen substitutes proposed by other 

 writers, employs the name originally applied 

 to the group by De Geer and sanctioned by 

 extensive use. 



The species of Dermaptera found in the 

 more temperate regions of the world are not 

 numerous, only two occurring in Great 

 Britain, but in the tropics they are much 

 more abundant, and in the volume before us 

 the author enumerates over one hundred and 

 thirty species. 



Comparatively very little has hitherto been 

 written upon this interesting order and the 

 bulk of Dr. Burr's work is, as is pointed out 

 by Dr. Shipley, the result of original investi- 

 gation. 



After a brief preface the author gives us a 

 Systematic List of Species. These fall into 

 five families, containing in all fifty-one genera. 

 There are one hundred and thirty-three spe- 

 cies definitely allocated and two inceriw sedis. 

 The three largest genera are Diplatys Serville, 

 Forficula Linnsus and Lahia Leach, contain- 

 ing, respectively, twelve, eleven and eight spe- 

 cies. Many of the genera contain but a single 

 species in the faunal region covered by the 

 work. 



The next section of the work is styled the 

 introduction, and presents a full and very 

 satisfactory account of the structure, develop- 

 ment, habits, and geographical distribution of 

 the Dermaptera. The bulk of the volume is 

 devoted to a detailed description of the various 

 families, subfamilies, genera, and species. 

 There are three appendices, one giving direc- 

 tions for collecting and preserving Dermap- 

 tera, the second containing a list of the au- 

 thors cited, and the third furnishing a glossary 



