42 



nary farmer. We therefore strongly advise all beginners who procure this book — and we- 

 recommend them to get it without fail — to commence their reading with chapter VI, 

 which contains very interesting and useful directions for collecting, preserving and 

 rearing insects ; they might then turn back and read chapters IV and V on Insect 

 Architecture and Insects Injurious and Beneficial to Agriculture. By this time we have 

 no doubt they will have become so deeply interested in the work that they will not be 

 discouraged by the drier details and the harder words in the remainder of the book. The 

 third chapter, which fills over a hundred pages, gives an admirable synopsis of the classi- 

 fication of insects, and should enable a beginner to arrange with some degree of system 

 any specimens that he collects. The author has departed from the usually received 

 divisions of insects and sets forth no less than sixteen orders ; this number he obtains by 

 sub-dividing the Neuroptera, Orthoptera and Diptera. To the new orders thus formed, he 

 applies the novel terms Plectoptera, Platyptera, Mecaptera, etc. We feel rather doubtful 

 about their general acceptance and think it a pity that they should have been put forth 

 in an elementary work of this kind before they had been discussed and approved of by 

 entomologists in general. We do not, however, wish to disparage the work ; it is 

 certainly a valuable compendium and we cordially recommend it to our readers who are- 

 beginners in entomology. The book is well written and excellently illustrated throughout, 

 and must prove a great help to the science by furnishing young students in a convenient 

 form with information that hitherto they could not readily procure, 



0. J. S. Bethune. 



An Introduction to Entomology. By Prof. J. H. Comstock, Cornell University,. 

 Ithaca, K Y. Published by the Author. Part I, pp 234, 8vo. (Price $2.00). 



The autumn of 1888 is certainly a notable one in the annals of North American 

 entomology owing to the publication of so many important works. Last month we drew 

 attention to Dr. Packard's excellent " Entomology for Beginners," and the issue of the 

 first part of Mr. Scudder's grand work on the Butterflies of the Eastern States and 

 Canada. We have now before us the first portion of another admirable work, which 

 is intended to serve as a text-book for students, and to enable them "to acquire a thorough 

 knowledge of the elementary principles of entomology, and to classify insects by means 

 of analytical keys similiar to those used in Botany." The first two chapters of 

 the book treat of the characters and metamorphoses, and the anatomy of insects ; 

 he next discusses the orders of the Hexapoda, to which the author very properly 

 limits insects. In this chapter he gives his reasons for adopting ten orders, 

 the number being made up of the seven generally accepted orders and the Thysanura, 

 Pseudoneuroptera and Physopoda ; in adhering so closely to the old classification he states 

 that he has been greatly influenced by a desire to make his book as simple as possible, 

 and " by the belief that an elementary text-book should follow rather than lead in 

 matters of this kind," in which opinion we thoroughly concur. The remainder of this 

 part of the work treats of the orders Thysanura, Pseudoneuroptera, Orthoptera, Physopoda, 

 Hemiptera and Neuroptera. In each chapter is given a general account of the order 

 treated of, an analytical table of the families, a descriptive account of each family with 

 in many cases tabular keys of the genera, and illustrations of the common species. 

 Future parts will complete the discussion of the orders, and furnish chapters on the 

 remedies for noxious insects, directions for collecting and preserving specimens, etc. 

 Judging from the portion before us, we have no hesitation in saying that the complete 

 work will be a most valuable and admirable manual of entomology ; in clearness and 

 simplicity of style, in excellence of illustration and in arrangement of matter, it leaves 

 nothing to be desired. We must not omit to mention that the two hundred wood cuts 

 are for the most part drawn and engraved by the author's* wife, and are very good indeed; 

 another excellent feature is the marking of the pronunciation of the accented syllables 

 of technical words, which will no doubt in time help very much to a desirable uniformity 

 in this respect. 



C. J. S. Bethune. 



