20 {June, 
Aeviews. 
A GuIDE TO THE StuDY oF INsxEcTs, and a treatise on those injurious and 
beneficial to Crops.—By A. S. Packarp, Junr., M.D. Salem (Massachusetts), 
Naturalists’ Book Agency ; London, Triibner & Co., 8vo., 1868-9. 
We seldom have had the pleasure of noticing a work of such sterling merit as 
this. Were we to compare it with previously published treatises of a similar 
nature, we should say it is a combination of Westwood’s “Introduction” and 
Curtis’s “ Farm Insects,” but a combination handled in such a manner as to convey 
to the reader little idea of either. While aiming at making it popular, the author 
has in no single instance lost sight of the scientific side of the question, and has 
produced a ‘‘Guide”” which must henceforth be looked upon and quoted as an 
original and pains-taking elucidation of the subject. The book is a marvel of 
cheapness, and should serve as a model in its “ getting-up,” its paper and printing 
being good, and its multitude of wood-cuts and several full plates being generally 
well executed. It was originally published in parts (10 constituting the volume), and 
extends to 700 pages of large octavo. Naturally, the illustrations are for the most 
taken from American subjects; but the author has aimed at making the work a 
“ Guide” for all entomologists, whatever may be their nationality,—has copiously 
extracted from European works wherever American materials, or insufficient know- 
ledge, failed to convey an adequate idea,—and has given full explanations of the 
anatomy of insects, with instructions for their capture and preservation. 
The arrangement is decidedly original, though based to some extent upon that 
of Leuckart and Agassiz. Including myriapods and spiders under the Class Insecta, 
Dr. Packard divides this into three orders, Hexapoda, Arachnida, and Myriapoda. 
From the Hexapoda (or true insects) he forms seven sub-orders in the following 
sequential arrangement—Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera (including Pulex and 
Braula), Coleoptera (including Stylops), H emiptera (including Thrips,the Pediculi, and 
Mallophaga), Orthoptera (including Dermaptera), and Newroptera, this latter compri- 
sing the order iu the Linnean sense, and including also the Lepismide and Poduride. 
This arrangement Dr. Packard considers to be a natural one, commencing with the 
most highly perfected, and ending with the most “degraded,” forms.” On a sub- 
ject upon which there is so much allowance to be made for differences of opinion, 
we are not disposed to be very critical, yet there are some things we can scarcely 
pass over in silence. At page 108, after enumerating structural reasons why the 
Hymenoptera should head the series, our author adds — * Besides, as animals 
endowed with instincts and a kind of reason, differing perhaps only in degree from 
that of man, these insects outrank all other Articulates.” Yet his plan forces him 
to the admission (pp. 585-587) that the Termitide are as fully endowed with 
reasoning faculties, adding that “Nature, constantly repeating the same idea, 
here leaps over whole groups of insects.” But to Dr. Packard, as to all system- 
atists, the Newrcptera generally have proved a stumbling-block, and we actually 
find the Trichoptera placed as the mest ‘degraded ” form (excepting Podura, &e.), 
notwithstanding their close affinity with the exalted Lepidoptera, an affinity which 
almost renders it questionable as to whether some Lepidopterous genera, @. g., 
Microrteryx, Nepticula, &c., might not be grafted on to the Trichoptera, without 
much outraging either. To our mind, this arrangement is a striking example of 
the fallacy of any system, which, being linear, attempts also to be natural. 
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