December 9, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



839 



nidffl will interfere with those published re- 

 cently by Colonel Thos. L. Casey.' The names 

 of Blatchley will, however, have priority, as 

 his report was issued September 20 (received 

 at the U. S. National Museum September 23), 

 while Colonel Casey's paper has the date of 

 issue September 24, 1910. 



The task which Professor Blatchley set him- 

 self and carried to a finish is gigantic and one 

 is filled with admiration for the energy, per- 

 severance and enthusiasm which alone could 

 have carried it through. Any one at all fa- 

 miliar with the multiplicity of forms in the 

 Coleoptera, and the extensiveness of the litera- 

 ture, will realize the labor involved. In this 

 case it must have been very materially aug- 

 mented by the fact that Professor Blatchley 

 lives remote from large libraries, collections 

 and fellow-workers. 



That there are shortcomings and errors in a 

 work of such scope, carried out single-handed, 

 must be expected. Some of these are due to 

 the fact that the author has had to depend for 

 the most part on the current American ento- 

 mological literature. Thus Smilia in the 

 Coccinellidse is preoccupied and replaced by 

 Microweisea Cockerell. Gahan has shown 

 that in the cerambycid genus Cyllene the 

 names rohinim and pictus both apply to the 

 same species and for the form occurring on 

 the hickory the name carycB was proposed. 

 Systematically the work reflects closely the 

 present state of North American coleopterol- 

 ogy. While there has been great activity in 

 the description of new species and genera the 

 broader study has been practically neglected 

 since the days of LeConte and Horn; no at- 

 tempt has been made by our students to fol- 

 low the progress of the science abroad. Thus 

 the position of the Ehyssodidfe in the ade- 

 phagous series has long been an established 

 fact. The grouping of the families has, for 

 good reasons, been very much modified in re- 

 cent years and the conception of certain fam- 

 ilies has entirely changed. 



Perhaps the greatest weakness of the work 

 is on the biological side, and this too indi- 



' " Memoirs on the Coleoptera," I. 



cates the backward state of our knowledge on 

 this side of the Atlantic. There are many 

 statements concerning habits and larval char- 

 acters which need correction. The Clavicornia 

 are broadly stated to be scavengers, whereas, 

 in fact (and in accordance with the hetero- 

 geneous character of the group as here con- 

 sidered) their habits are most diversified. In 

 the Silphida; both the genera Necrophorus and 

 Silplia are said to bury dead animals, but this 

 is only true of the first-named genus. Some 

 mention should also have been made of the 

 habits of the smaller forms which are now 

 generally considered to belong to two separate 

 families, the Liodidse (Anisotomidae) and the 

 Clambidse. Of the Staphylinid® the broad 

 statement is made that " they feed upon de- 

 caying animal and vegetable substances." 

 This is probably true of but a small part of 

 this large group, as many widely separated 

 forms have been shown to be predaceous both 

 as images and larvse. A very loose statement 

 concerning staphylinid larvae is that they, 

 " except in the absence of wings, resemble the 

 adults both in structure and habits." Under 

 the elaterid genus Melanactes the old error 

 with reference to the luminous female and 

 larva (the two being identical in structure) of 

 Phengodes is perpetuated, and this in spite of 

 the fact, as appears from the text, that Mr. 

 Henshaw advised the author of the true rela- 

 tion of these forms. Many of the original 

 figures, while fairly faithful in detail, are not 

 characteristic and give a wrong impression of 

 the habitus of the insects. This can not be 

 wondered at when one considers the difficulty 

 of securing competent talent for such work. 

 In this respect the unexcelled figures from the 

 reports of Forbes, which are reproduced, are 

 in striking contrast. 



In the introductory part of the work Pro- 

 fessor Blatchley tells us that the Ehyncho- 

 phora are not included on account of lack 

 of time and space, but the hope is held 

 out that a future report will be devoted 

 to them. We understand that Professor 

 Blatchley not only has the necessary collec- 

 tions at hand but that he also has the manu- 



